The Southern District Committee for Planning and Building supported, in accordance with government decision, a government plan to build an additional hospital in Be'er Sheva, Israel Hayonm reported.
The new medical center will be built across 2,000 dunam (494 acres), in eastern Be'er Sheva, and include five centers, and 800,000 square meters (8,611,128.33 square feet) of construction.
A general hospital, the new center will include a center for emergency medical care and inpatient wards, a pediatric hospital, a rehabilitative hospital, a geriatric hospital, and a mental health hospital. It is expected that the new center will include 2,000 hospital beds.
The campus around the center will be comprehensive and include employment centers in the fields of healthcare and science: biotechnology, medical engineering, pharmaceuticals, research and academics, a nursing school, hotels for new mothers, academic and medical staff, medical tourism, and living facilities for doctors, nurses, and students.
The plan is backed by Israel's Health Ministry, Israel Lands Authority, and the Be'er Sheva municipality, and the Southern District Planning Office is involved as well..
"The new medical center is intended to improve the healthcare services in the Negev, and close the gap between it and the center of the country," Tomer Gutthalf, the Southern District planner in the Planning Administration. "With the plan's final approval, we will be able to move from the planning stage to the action stage."