Treasury mulls plans for PPP finance hospital

The government is inviting bids from private sector players to partner in the construction of a 300 bed hospital.

This marks the first public private partnership project targeted at the health sector as government moves to increase the number of hospitals.

By partnering with private investors, the government will ease the burden of continuously funding infrastructure projects.

The government has increasingly been turning to the private sector by structuring partnership agreements to fill the funding gap.

In a notice in the dailies, the National Treasury said it had received funding from the World Bank to go towards the Infrastructure Finance and Public Private Partnerships projects.

The treasury is searching for a consultancy firm to conduct a feasibility study for the development, operation and maintenance of a 300 bed hospital.

“It is intended that part of the proceeds of this credit be applied to eligible payments under the contracts for provision of transaction advisory services to undertake a PPP feasibility study of a 300 bed private hospital,” Treasury said in the notice.

The private hospital will be a wing of the Kenyatta National Hospital, the country’s largest referral hospital.

The government plans to use the hospital to offer local access to state of the art specialty care, reducing the need for Kenyans to travel abroad for healthcare.

Last month, the government opened up a round of PPP financed roads which are expected to cost Sh320 billion.