HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, paid a special visit to the Children’s Cancer Ward at the Aachen University Hospital in Germany yesterday.
Princess Haya will visit three hospitals across Europe this summer in support of a global fact-finding initiative to assist in the development of the Al Jalila Children’s Speciality Hospital in Dubai, the first dedicated children’s hospital in the United Arab Emirates.
Greeted and escorted by Professor Peter Mertens and Professor Henning Sass, the hospital’s Medical Director and Chairman of the Board, Princess Haya toured the Ward, which She visited previously in 2006, and discussed best practice in patient care, the fundamental importance of research initiatives and of first-rate medical education as a means to achieve excellence in paediatric healthcare services.
The tour of the Aachen University Hospital is one of a series of hospital visits that are scheduled to take place in the coming months. In August, Princess Haya is planning to visit the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and Guy’s and Saint Thomas’s Hospital in the United Kingdom.

Princess Haya’s visits follow those that took place last month by a team under the leadership of His Excellency Qadhi Al Murooshid, Director General of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), to the Texas Children’s Hospital, the Boston Children’s Hospital and the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital in the United States.

Princess Haya is working with the team at DHA to create the Al Jalila Children’s Speciality Hospital, which was announced in December 2008 by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and is due to be opened in 2012.

Internationally, Princess Haya works closely with the Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa (WSPCCA).

Photo Caption:

HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, during a visit to the Children’s Cancer Ward at the Aachen University Hospital in Germany. Her visit is one of a series of hospital visits that are scheduled to take place across Europe this summer, in support of a global fact-finding initiative to assist in the development of the Al Jalila Children’s Speciality Hospital in Dubai.