Health Affairs Under-Secretary Dr Ahmed bin Abdulqadhir Al Ghassani, who was inaugurating an international neurosurgery conference at the Institute of Health Sciences on Wednesday, noted that the Khoula Hospital’s neurosurgery department had registered a 73 per cent average bed occupancy rate in the last three years. The number of patients visiting outpatient clinics rose to 5,319 last year from 3,598 in 2001, he added.