œ100m hospital bid dropped by group

The MDA Group-led consortium has pulled out of the bidding for the œ100 million PFI project to redevelop St Thomas Hospital in London, CJ can reveal. The news follows last week's withdrawal by Taylor Woodrow/Healthcare Group from the œ100 million Dartford Hospital project in Kent.

The consortium pulled out shortly before the initial bids were to be submitted to Guy's and St Thomas Hospitals NHS Trust. Now only The Health Management Group (Amec/Building & Property Management) and The Hospital Company (Tarmac/UME) will return final proposals on 5 August.

The move is only the latest in a succession of withdrawls from various PFI healthcare schemes. The continuing fallout reflects the limitations on the financial resources of those bidding and the complexity and time consuming nature of the tender process.

Laing pulled out of the bidding for the œ235 million Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel and the œ45 million Cumberland Infirmary scheme in Carlisle (Swan Hill also pulled out of the latter). Tarmac withdrew from the œ250 million Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Kier from the œ118 million Edinburgh Western General Hospital. WS Atkins and Trafalgar House both withdrew from the œ25 million Royal Hallamshire Hospital project in Sheffield.

Several hospitals have rejected the PFI route altogether. The Royal United Hospital in Bath decided to switch back to conventional funding for its œ40 million scheme, after the trust and the preferred bidder agreed the PFI scheme offered no economic advantage. City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust also rejected the PFI route for its œ17 million project.