Skanska in exclusive talks for £620m Barts and Royal London PFI hospital scheme

The Skanska/Innisfree consortium has seen off a bid by French contractor Bouygues to enter into exclusive talks for the £620m private finance scheme to redevelop Barts Hospital and the Royal London Hospital.

Both bidders were summoned to a meeting yesterday by the client, Barts and The London NHS Trust, to hear which of them had won the UK's largest single private finance healthcare project.

Skanska confirmed today (Thursday) that it had been told that if certain conditions can be agreed within a fixed time period, its consortium will be awarded preferred bidder status.

Skanska's proposals include the design and construction of a 183,000m2 new building and the refurbishment of a further 47,200m2 of existing facilities at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. It will accommodate 929 beds and a new accident and emergency department.

A new specialist cardiac and cancer centre will be created at Barts, which will have 345 beds. A new 67,400m2 building will be constructed and 18,000m2 of existing buildings will be refurbished.

The Skanska/Innisfree consortium includes Skanska Rashleigh Weatherfoil as hard facilities management provider and Mowlem Aqumen will provide hotel services, cleaning, catering, portering and other soft FM services.

The Renaissance consortium led by Bouygues with Ecovert FM, Sodexho and funder HSBC Infrastructure, was the only other firm to bid for the scheme.

The rough schedule is to hand over 90% of the Royal London redevelopment by 2009 and the new cancer centre at Barts by 2008. The whole redevelopment is expected to be finished by 2012/13.

A number of advance schemes are already on site in the form of a new pathology and pharmacy block at the Royal London and the refurbishment of the west wing and Lucas block at Barts.