Bouygues is preferred bidder for £120m Broomfield Hospital project in Essex

Bouygues has been selected as preferred bidder by the Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust for its £120m PFI scheme at Broomfield Hospital in Essex.

Bouygues saw off competition from its only remaining rival, the Pyramid Healthcare consortium (Interserve/Amec) to clinch the deal. Balfour Beatty and Mowlem both withdrew earlier in the bidding citing workload pressures.

The scheme involves centralising all the Trust's acute services at Broomfield to provide more beds, theatres, a new maternity and children's department and a large diagnostic and treatment centre. The existing hospital and the new build elements will operate as an integrated whole.

The Trust said there "was very little to choose between the two and the designs were so good that public opinion was equally split".

However, Bouygues' bid won out thanks to its clinical functionality. The new hospital design is based on a five-storey building with a helicopter landing pad on the top and a multi-storey carpark.

The Trust and Bouygues will now fine tune details and designs and finalise the contract prior to work starting in 2005. The hospital is expected to become operational in late 2008.