An ambitious plan for a new central hospital in Cape Town was announced during the recent Hospital Association of South Africa’s annual conference (HASA2023).
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Thorpe Koorts, infrastructure director for the Western Cape Government (WCG), says the new facility will be strategically located alongside the existing Tygerberg Hospital. The project forms part of a broader initiative to create three new hospitals in the Western Cape.
According to Bizcommunity, the other two facilities will be built along the Klipfontein Corridor near the former GF Jooste Hospital site and in Belhar, opposite the UWC Campus.
Construction of the new central hospital is expected to cost R5 billion, excluding equipment. It will be established under a public-private partnership (PPP). ‘This will be the biggest PPP that we have ever done, and bar the Gautrain, it may be the biggest one in the country,’ says Koorts.
Located on 18 hectares of land to the west of Tygerberg Hospital, the facility will host between 600 and 900 beds. Tygerberg will remain operational during the construction process.
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According to Koorts, the existing Tygerberg Hospital has exceeded its life expectancy by two decades. Although impressive when originally built, the centre has become prohibitively expensive to maintain, as a CSIR study conducted in the early 2000s revealed its obsolescence.
Due to this, Koorts says it was decided to redirect the maintenance budget towards partnering with a private entity to fund and construct the new hospital. The allocated funds will be used for unitary payments following a financially feasible model.
Construction of the facility is scheduled to start in 2026 and end in 2031. The WCG will transition services from the old hospital to the new, redirect primary and secondary services to Belhar’s new hospital, and retain academic and tertiary services at the central hospital.
‘The aim is to complete these two hospitals, the Central Hospital and the new Belhar Hospital, in close proximity to streamline the transition process,’ says Koorts. ‘The reason behind restructuring services is to focus on pure academic services, given the presence of three higher learning institutions on-site: Stellenbosch University Medical School, UWC, and CPUT.’
A thorough case study was conducted for Tygerberg via PPP following national Treasury guidelines, and the feasibility study indicated value for money and affordability.
‘A private party will be procured to design, construct, finance, and maintain the building over 20 years. The private party will secure its financing for construction, with a capital contribution from the provincial treasury,’ adds Koorts. ‘Expenses will be recouped over 20 years through a unitary payment funded from the national budget.’
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