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The Food and Health Bureau announced today (March 13) that the tender for a site at Wong Chuk Hang has been awarded through an open tender exercise to GHK Hospital Limited for developing a private hospital.
A spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said, "The health-care system of Hong Kong runs on a dual-track basis encompassing both public and private elements. We will continue to maintain this dual-track system, which has served us well, and ensure that it can develop in a balanced and sustainable manner. The private health-care sector is an integral part of the dual-track system. One of our health-care reform initiatives is to promote and facilitate private health-care development. This will help redress the imbalance between the public and private sectors in hospital services, and increase the overall capacity of the health-care system in Hong Kong to cope with the rising service demand."
To facilitate private hospital development, the Government put out two sites reserved for this purpose for open tender from April to July last year. The two sites are at Wong Chuk Hang (Aberdeen Inland Lot No. 458) and Tai Po (Tai Po Town Lot No. 207).
The spokesman said, "We have received tenders for both sites. The Assessment Panel set up by the Food and Health Bureau has completed the assessment of all the tender submissions based on the marking scheme published in the tender documents in accordance with the established government procurement and tendering procedures."
Regarding the Wong Chuk Hang site, the Government received three tender submissions. After detailed assessment by the Assessment Panel, the tender submission from GHK Hospital Limited obtained the highest combined score for its service provision proposal and land premium offer and was recommended for acceptance. The Central Tender Board approved the acceptance of the tender after scrutiny of the report submitted by the Assessment Panel. The land premium offered by the company is $1.688 billion.
The Government has entered into the Agreement and Conditions of Sale (Land Grant) as well as the Service Deed with GHK Hospital Limited today. The shareholders of this company are Singapore's Parkway Pantai Limited and Hong Kong-listed NWS Holdings Limited, whereas the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong is its collaborating partner. Parkway Pantai Limited has experience in undertaking private health-care operations and developments in many regions in Asia. NWS Holdings Limited is an infrastructure and service enterprise with experience in public and private hospital construction projects in Hong Kong.
"We believe that the rich experience of the successful tenderer, GHK Hospital Limited, and its professional team will be put to full use in the development of the new private hospital. We expect that, upon completion of the new hospital, the overall capacity of the health-care system in Hong Kong will be increased, enabling the public to have more choices for affordable and quality private hospital services. It will also help address the increasing demand for health-care services and alleviate the imbalance between the public and private sectors in hospital services in Hong Kong," the spokesman added.
According to the terms of the deeds signed, GHK Hospital Limited will have to provide services in the new private hospital as follows:
* The hospital will commence operation within 46 months (i.e. by January 2017);
* 500 hospital beds will be provided;
* 92 per cent of the total gross floor area of the hospital will be used for clinical services;
* In addition to services in general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics and traumatology, and gynaecology, services in 11 other specialties will also be provided;
* The number of obstetric beds will be capped at no more than 3.2 per cent of the total number of beds in the hospital (i.e. 16 beds);
* At least 70 per cent of in-patient bed days taken up in a year will be used for provision of services to local residents;
* At least 51 per cent of in-patient bed days taken up in a year will be used for provision of services to local residents at packaged charge through standard beds;
* Comprehensive charging information of its services will be made available to the public; and
* The hospital will endeavour to participate in hospital assessment and attain accreditation within 36 months from the commencement of operation of the hospital.
As for the Tai Po site, the Government received one tender submission, which, however, failed to fully meet the mandatory requirements set out in the tender documents. Therefore, the Assessment Panel recommended that the tender for this site be cancelled pursuant to the Government's Stores and Procurement Regulations. After scrutiny of the report submitted by the Assessment Panel, the Central Tender Board also agreed to the recommendation.
The Government adopted a two-envelope approach in the tender exercise. Bidders were required to submit their service provision proposals and land premium offers concurrently according to the requirements set out in the tender documents. In assessing the tenders, the weightings given to the service provision proposal and the land premium offer were 70 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. The service provision proposal submitted had to meet the relevant special requirements.
The spokesman said, "This tender exercise is a new attempt. Through including various special requirements, it ensures that the private hospital will accord service priority to local residents, adopt a transparent fee-charging system and provide various specialty services so as to address local health-care demand.
"Overall, this tender exercise has reflected the market's interests in private hospital development. We will examine the experience gained from this exercise, review the market response and assess the needs of the community in formulating the way forward for the future development of private hospitals and the disposal arrangements for the other three reserved sites."
Ends/Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:42
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