New university hospital in Stockholm is open for tender

Today, the invitation to tender for the financing, construction and operations of the new university hospital in Stockholm has been distributed. Tenders are to be submitted by October for one of the largest PPP-projects (Private Public Partnership) ever in Sweden. The New Karolinska Solna University Hospital (NKS) is an investment with a maximum price-tag of SEK 14,1 billions.

The invitation to tender includes financing of the project, buildings, operations, and services (cleaning, property management, etc.) to the new hospital. Healthcare, education, and research is not included in the project.

“The New Karolinska Solna University Hospital is an important step forward in modernizing our healthcare system, as well as providing new possibilities for world-class medical research”, says Lennart Persson, Managing Director of the project at NKS.

More than 350 healthcare-individuals have been involved in defining the specifications, in collaboration with architects, legal, and business consultants. Specifications define requirements for patient-environments, hygiene, patient-safety, etc. as well as technical and environmental requirements.

Accessibility, openness, and patient-safety

New principles for how healthcare should be organized are driving factors for the project. Examples are, single-rooms to minimize the spread of disease, and new ideas for bringing separate specialties closer together, centered around the patient. Also, great efforts are made to create an environment with close collaboration between basic- and clinical research.

PPP – Procurement, no cost for tax-payers until the day of opening

The procurement will be in the form of a partnership between the Stockholm County Council and a private consortium of companies charged with the financing, building and operations of the new hospital. Thus, the costs involved will not affect tax-payers until the new hospital is ready for operations in 2015.

Construction to start next year

Following the conclusion of the procurement-process during the spring of 2010, construction is to be initiated by the summer of 2010. Already, preparations for the new constructions are under way in the form of preparing grounds and utility infrastructure.