Costa Rica prepares bidding process to build US$120mn hospital tower

Costa Rica is preparing a bidding process to build the first stage of a US$120mn hospital that has been planned for 20 years but has failed to get off the ground until now due to administrative and financial issues. 

The works, which include an intensive care tower at the national children’s hospital in San José (also known as the hope tower) was designed to relieve the pressure on the facilities, where around 400,000 patients per year are currently attended, including 150,000 emergency consultations, according to the civil association Pro Hospital Nacional de Niños.

“Every year all the beds are occupied and there's a continual influx of patients .... We lack the installed capacity to adequately serve the entire population,” health minister Mary Munive said in late October. 

The hospital expansion was officially started in 2009, but has run into various problems including lack of funding, an order to halt construction of healthcare facilities due to the poor finances of social security agency CCSS and other administrative issues, such as difficulties with purchasing and expropriating the land for construction. 

According to information released in 2021 under the government of former president Carlos Alvarado, the tower would occupy an area of 8,770m2 to the west of the current hospital. However, the administration reportedly failed to acquire the lots needed to construct the 11-floor building, which includes several intensive care units and a heliport. 

Financing for the project is expected to be drawn from the fund for social development and family assignations (Fodesaf), but the funds were eventually redirected by the previous legislature to other social programs such as scholarships, local media reported.

"At the end of the previous legislative period, they had the good intention of increasing scholarships, but maybe the lawmakers didn't realize that by taking funds from the Pro-Hospital Nacional de Niños association ... they were ensuring that the tower couldn't be built," lawmaker Paulina Ramírez of the PLN party was quoted as saying by daily El Observador.

The current administration has instructed the CCSS to find the funds to build the first stage of the project due to the hospital's problems in attending the public. 

According to newspaper La Nación, the first of the two stages includes the construction of emergency facilities, labs, pharmacies, X-ray rooms, a pediatric ICU, neonatal ICU, and a bridge to connect the building with the rest of the hospital, among other items.

Some US$55mn in funding was sourced and approved by CCSS in October in a move that required congressional approval, and congress is currently processing two further initiatives to make more money available for construction, Monumental reported on Monday.  

CCSS expects to launch the bidding process in the coming months and start construction within a year.