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The Government today (April 13) invited tenders from local and overseas parties for developing private hospitals at sites in Wong Chuk Hang and Tai Po. The deadline for submitting tenders is July 27, 2012.
A spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said, "It is our policy to facilitate private hospital development to address the imbalance between the public and private sectors in hospital services. Increasing the overall capacity of the health-care systems in Hong Kong can help in coping with the increasing service demand and provide the public with more choices and affordable high-quality private hospital services."
The spokesman added, "Hong Kong is also renowned for its high standard of professional health care as well as its advanced medical technology and equipment. Coupled with our excellent communication facilities and marketing skills, we have the advantages and potential in further developing our medical services, in particular in the provision of highly specialised services that require technology and multi-disciplinary skills."
To facilitate private hospital development, the Government has reserved four pieces of land at Wong Chuk Hang, Tai Po, Tseung Kwan O, and Lantau for sale for this purpose.
An Expression of Interest exercise was launched in December 2009 to solicit market interest in the four reserved sites. Subsequently, the detailed land disposal arrangement has been formulated.
The first two sites now put to open tender are Aberdeen Inland Lot No. 458 (about 27,500 square metres) at Wong Chuk Hang and Tai Po Town Lot No. 207 (about 54,851 square metres) in Tai Po.
To ensure the two new private hospitals will provide services of good quality and cater for the needs of the general public, the Government has included a set of special requirements for hospital development at the sites. The requirements include aspects of restriction on land use, timing of commencement of hospital operations, bed capacity, scope of services, price transparency and service standards.
Tenderers should refer to the tender documents for the requirement details. The Explanatory Statement, Form of Tender, Tender Notice and Conditions of Sale for the tenders are available for distribution and uploaded to the Lands Department's website at www.landsd.gov.hk and the Food and Health Bureau's website at www.fhb.gov.hk starting from today.
The Government will adopt a two-envelope tender approach, with 70 per cent weighting to be given to the service quality aspect and 30 per cent to the premium aspect in the assessment of the tenders. The assessment criteria are set out in the tender documents.
To facilitate monitoring of the operations of the new private hospitals, each successful tenderer will be required to enter into a service deed with the Government. The service deeds, which will be coterminous with the land leases, will incorporate the successful tenderers' proposals for operation of the private hospitals.
The spokesman noted that both local and overseas tenderers who possessed relevant experience in hospital operation are welcome to bid for the sites. Interested parties should submit the tenders in accordance with the requirements given in the tender documents no later than noon on July 27, 2012, Hong Kong time (GMT +8 hours).
For enquiries on the invitation to tenders, please email ceshq@landsd.gov.hk or fax to (852) 2116 0764.
Ends/Friday, April 13, 2012
Issued at HKT 11:00
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