7th September, 2019
The Federal Government will upgrade the 22 teaching hospitals in the country and construct a new 500-bed state-of-the-art Specialist Hospital in Abuja through Public Private Partnership (PPP), according to the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).
Mr Patrick Ederaro, Acting Head, Media and Publicity, ICRC made this known in a statement on Saturday, in Abuja.
Ederaro said that the concession model for the existing teaching hospitals’ equipment that would be supplied would be world class standard and life cycle maintenance.
According to him, there will not be a full concession of any of the entire existing teaching hospitals, so there will be no job losses.
“There will be concessions on and of specific services, for medical equipment supplied like Dialysis Unit, Imaging Unit, Diagnostic Services and other departments mentioned above.
“The concessionaire will finance the supply and maintenance of world class dialysis units and perform to very high output specifications and contracted key performance indicators.”
He added that medical services in the hospitals would be run by the Chief Medical Director (CMD) and his or her staff, but with the benefit of world class support services, provided by the private concessionaire.
Ederaro said that the scope of the concessionaire was limited to the specific service over which the concession was granted to the consortium.
However, the new state-of-the-art 500-bed Federal Centre of Medical Excellence, in Abuja, would be the only full concession, where the concessionaire would be responsible for all medical services.
The statement recalled that the Federal Government in 2003 embarked on modernisation and upgrading of 14 teaching hospitals in two phases, considering the magnitude and availability of funds.
“The first and second phases of the above mentioned modernisation programme were implemented on a credit purchase arrangement, with a partnership agreement between the Ministry of Health, VAMED Engineering and CPL Medical Group.
“This was with a specific delivery joint venture agreement between CPL Medical Group and VAMED Engineering.
“Since life cycle maintenance was not part of the procurement arrangement, these phases were not as successful as the federal government had envisaged”, he said.
Ederaro said that the first and second phases were procured using traditional public procurement methodology, adding that the President, thereafter, approved the new phase to be implemented through PPP procurement methodology.