An Islamic hospital is being built in Rotterdam, the second largest city of Netherlands.
According to a Dutch businessmen, Paul Sturkenboom, men and women will be separate, male patients will be treated by a male nurse and medical staff and similar arrangements will be made for female patients, while halal food and on-staff imams will also be available in the hospital.
Rotterdam is planning to employ 45 doctors and 275 nurses to serve the nearly one million Muslims in The Netherlands.
The staff will not have to be Muslim, but will have to respect the Islamic culture.
The hospital project was criticized by right winged parties and right winged municipality members took an action to prevent the project.
However, the left winged controlled council refused the draft on grounds that the project was an attempt of “the private sector”.
“There are about a hundred hospitals in the Netherlands based on general or Christian principles, but none at all for the more than a million Muslims living here. They are regularly confronted by problems,” Sturkenboom explained. “For example, they are only able to obtain halal food sporadically. The result is that they often refuse all hospital meals and have to provide their own food.”