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Public-private partnership with World Bank for construction of new municipal hospital in Timisoara
Timisoara mayor Dominic Fritz signed on Thursday a public-private partnership (PPP) with the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the construction of the new Timisoara Municipal Hospital in the northern part of the city, which will bring together all the hospital's departments, currently operating in 14 locations.
Dominic Fritz pointed out that this is the only chance to have a new, modern municipal hospital in the next 10 years, as many of the current locations are in old buildings that will no longer be accredited.
"We will be looking, together with the IFC, for a private company to take on the construction and equipping of the hospital. The first tranche of money for the municipality will have to be transferred the day we get the key. We get rid of all this risk we have seen in the past: delays, cost increases, extra bids for the remaining works (...). We will have companies doing these kinds of projects all over the world," said mayor Dominic Fritz.
The pre-feasibility study is expected to be completed in the coming months, something that will determine the number of beds in the new health facility and the estimated cost of building it.
According to current estimates there will be between 300 and 500 beds, and costs will rise to EUR 120 million.
"We are very cautious with these figures, we will know them after the pre-feasibility study," said the mayor.
The manager of Timisoara Municipal Hospital, Dr Daniel Malita, said that the institution's medical activity is currently being carried out in 14 locations, with patients having to travel to several locations every day for investigations.
The Municipal Hospital presently has 1,018 beds, of which 66 are for one-day hospitalisation.
According to the mayor, the collaboration of the city hall with IFC started two years ago, when the local elected representatives voted a resolution on the opportunity to initiate the necessary steps to achieve the new investment objective Timisoara Municipal Emergency Hospital, in the context of collaboration with IFC.