Thumbay Psychiatric Hospital project overview and impact

Thumbay Psychiatric Hospital will open a 120-bed psychiatric and rehabilitation campus in Sharjah Healthcare City, starting construction in June 2026.

Thumbay Group has broken ground on a purpose-built, 110,000 sq ft Thumbay Psychiatric and Rehabilitation Hospital located in Sharjah Healthcare City, designed as the region's first private, fully integrated hospital dedicated to psychiatric care, neuro-rehabilitation and addiction recovery. The campus will include 120 beds, VIP inpatient villas, dedicated wings for child and adolescent psychiatry and mood and anxiety disorders, and a Thumbay Masjid accessible to the public.

Construction is scheduled to begin in June 2026 with an operational target of mid-2027, and the project is aiming for CARF accreditation as its quality benchmark. Senior officials including Dr Abdelaziz Saeed Al Mheiri and Dr Thumbay Moideen led the launch, positioning the hospital to reduce outbound referrals and to join Thumbay's network that serves hundreds of thousands of patients across the UAE annually.

The Thumbay Psychiatric Hospital is a purpose-built 110,000 sq ft, 120-bed psychiatric and rehabilitation campus with construction starting in June 2026 and operations planned for mid-2027. The project was announced by Thumbay Group and Sharjah Healthcare City leadership and is positioned as the region's first private, fully integrated facility focused on psychiatric care, neuro-rehabilitation and addiction recovery.

The hospital's programme includes VIP inpatient villas, inpatient wards for neuro-rehabilitation and addiction recovery, a dedicated child and adolescent psychiatry wing and specialised services for mood and anxiety disorders. The campus design targets CARF accreditation, reflecting an emphasis on rehabilitation outcomes and internationally benchmarked protocols. The 110,000 sq ft footprint and 120-bed capacity mean the development will absorb a significant portion of specialised mental health demand that currently sends patients abroad, while integrating outpatient clinics, day programmes and long-stay recovery suites.

From a delivery and risk perspective, the June 2026 ground-breaking gives the developer roughly 12 to 15 months to deliver shell, fit-out and commissioning to meet the mid-2027 opening window. That schedule requires tight coordination with Sharjah Healthcare City permitting, medical equipment procurement and recruitment of specialised clinicians in neuro-rehabilitation and addiction medicine. The requirement to meet CARF standards introduces further quality controls but also creates a market differentiator that can accelerate payer recognition and institutional referrals once accreditation milestones are achieved.

Sharjah Healthcare City was selected because it offers a healthcare-focused regulatory framework and an ecosystem that supports specialist hospitals, enabling the Thumbay Psychiatric Hospital to operate within an integrated medical campus. Sharjah Healthcare City provides land allocation, licensing pathways and proximity to existing Thumbay medical, education and diagnostics institutions, creating operational synergies for referrals and support services.

Strategically, locating the 120-bed, 110,000 sq ft facility inside Sharjah Healthcare City addresses a regional service gap in psychiatric and rehabilitation care where patients currently travel abroad for specialised programmes. The emirate's commitment, as stated by Dr Abdelaziz Saeed Al Mheiri, positions the project within Sharjah's broader healthcare development plan and facilitates partnerships with local payers and governmental health authorities. Proximity to transport corridors and Sharjah's population catchment supports outpatient volumes and family-centred long-stay care, while the Thumbay Group's existing network that serves hundreds of thousands of patients annually provides a feeder base for referrals and multi-disciplinary integration.

Operationally, the site choice reduces set-up risk by leveraging on-site diagnostics and laboratory services from the Thumbay ecosystem and simplifies credentialing with local health authorities. Nevertheless, integration into the Sharjah regulatory framework means timelines for licensing, staffing and CARF-aligned process design must be carefully managed to avoid delays to the June 2026 to mid-2027 delivery schedule. Payers and institutional referrers will look for evidence of accreditation progress and clinical governance before shifting high-acuity referrals to the new hospital.

The hospital will provide inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care, neuro-rehabilitation, addiction recovery programmes and child and adolescent psychiatry, organised across dedicated wings and a 120-bed capacity. Services will include long-stay recovery suites, VIP inpatient villas for privacy, specialist neuro-rehab wards and outpatient clinics for mood and anxiety disorders, creating end-to-end patient pathways from acute stabilization to community reintegration.

Clinically, the model combines acute psychiatry with rehabilitation therapies and addiction medicine to reduce fragmentation of care. Patients can be admitted to one of the 120 beds for inpatient assessment and stabilization, then transition to intensive neuro-rehabilitation programmes or residential addiction recovery suites as clinically indicated. Outpatient follow-up, day programmes and family therapy will be embedded to support step-down care. The Thumbay network's diagnostic and laboratory services will underpin rapid workup and continuity, and the hospital's CARF accreditation target signals a commitment to outcome-based protocols and measurable functional gains for patients.

Pathway design also anticipates payer engagement and referral protocols: acute admissions will follow emergency and inpatient referral routes, while planned neuro-rehab and addiction admissions will use structured referral criteria and multidisciplinary admission boards. Risk management includes protocols for involuntary admission where applicable, infection control for long-stay wards and specialised staffing ratios for neuro-rehab. Meeting CARF standards will require audited outcome metrics, which in turn will influence insurer acceptance and length-of-stay benchmarks across the hospital's services.

• Integrated inpatient to outpatient care reduces patient transfers abroad
• VIP villas support long-stay private pay and confidentiality needs
• CARF aim strengthens rehabilitation governance and outcomes

Thumbay Psychiatric Hospital will increase regional specialised mental health capacity by 120 beds and a 110,000 sq ft campus, reducing the need for patients to travel overseas for neuro-rehabilitation and addiction recovery. By providing the UAE's first private, fully integrated psychiatric and rehabilitation hospital, it will capture institutional referrals and create new payer pathways for both private insurance and government-funded referrals.

Market impact includes redirecting a portion of referrals currently outbound to foreign centres back into the UAE, supporting continuity of care and keeping medical spend local. Thumbay's broader network, which serves hundreds of thousands of patients annually, will act as a referral engine to populate inpatient and outpatient services. For payers, the hospital's CARF accreditation objective and documented clinical pathways provide evidence for negotiated tariffs and case-rate contracts; insurers typically require accreditation and outcome data before adopting new specialised providers into preferred networks.

Operationally, the hospital will influence length-of-stay norms and unit costs for complex care in the emirate. Payers and employers will monitor readmission rates, functional outcomes and average length of stay as part of contracting. While the project does not publish pricing, the facility's VIP villas and long-stay suites indicate a mixed funding model combining private-pay, insured and institutional funding. Successful accreditation and demonstrable outcomes will be critical to achieving sustainable referral volumes and payer agreements after the mid-2027 opening.

The Thumbay Psychiatric and Rehabilitation Hospital is a 110,000 sq ft, 120-bed specialist campus beginning construction in June 2026 with a mid-2027 operational target. Its CARF accreditation objective, dedicated neuro-rehab and addiction wings, and position inside Sharjah Healthcare City are designed to retain referrals in the UAE and establish measurable rehabilitation outcomes for payers and referrers.