On February 2, 1979, the Lebanese government decided to build a governmental hospital with a 500-bed capacity on a publicly owned property in Bir Hassan, Beirut. The decision was based on technical studies made by the minister of Health and the Minister of Public Works and Transportation. Due to the advent of the Lebanese civil war, which significantly weakened the public health care sector, the construction project had to be postponed until 1995[2] when then prime minister Rafik Hariri laid the cornerstone; construction was finalized during 2000.[2] The hospital was inaugurated on August 2, 2004 with a cost of 121 million US dollars.[2]