Positive views from NHS batched PFI open day
17:05 10 Mar 2004
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The Three Shires NHS batched PFI hospital deal received a vote of confidence from contractors who attended the open day last week.
The £132m Three Shires batch is led by the Derbyshire Mental Health Services Trust, along with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust.
Under the batched PFI model, the three trusts will appoint a framework partner to undertake all three PFI hospital projects.
The lead project will be the Derby scheme. Bidders will be expected to put in a lump sum price based on the Derby scheme as well as unit pricing that can be applied to the designs for the other two schemes.
Contractors Amey, Costain, Carillion, Laing, Kier and Balfour Beatty were among 150 organisations that attended.
A Costain spokeswoman said: "It was well organised and clear that lots of the primary care trusts there had got their act together."
An Amey spokesman concurred: "The size of the batch is manageable. It is not quite like having to deliver three acutes. Certainly the information given indicated the project has been well thought out and well organised."
One potential bidder said: "There will be a lot of interest in this batch, unlike the Northern batch which was nowhere near as well organised as this one."