The Health Service Executive (HSE) is seeking a “delivery partner” with “programme management expertise” at an estimated cost of €20 million as part of the development of the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH).
More than €147 million has been spent so far on preparations for the planned new hospital to be developed on the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) in Dublin.
The HSE put out a call for tender at the end of October for a “delivery partner and programme support services” to work on the NMH project over 74 months, or just over six years.
The notice on the eTenders website says: “The objective is to secure programme management expertise, structure and rigour, as well as specialist advisory support, to ensure the successful delivery of the programme.”
It says the appointed partner “will be responsible for undertaking programme management activities, will form an integral part of the overarching NMH at SVUH Programme governance structure, and will provide specialist support, as needed, to meet changing and evolving programme workstream requirements”.
The estimated value of the management consultancy work over the course of the programme is put at €20 million excluding VAT.
The eTenders notice includes a series of so-called common procurement vocabulary codes (CPV codes), which allow for relevant notifications to be sent to certain areas of industry.
CPV codes listed in the notice include “business services”, “legal services”, “management related services” and “crisis management services”.
In response to queries from The Irish Times, the HSE said the delivery partner “will form part of the overall team supporting the HSE on the NMH project”.
It added that a “Pre-Construction Services Agreement [PCSA] is under way, being managed on behalf of the HSE by an independently appointed Employers Representative who was appointed following the conclusion of a separate procurement process”.
The statement continued: “The 74-month duration of the delivery partner tender is the period for which we wish to retain the delivery partner, which includes the PCSA period, the construction and operationalising of the new hospital, including the transition of services from Holles Street to the new hospital.”
The HSE also said: “Crisis management services are listed as one of several CPV codes on the tender, simply to attract the widest possible cohort of potential applicants with the appropriate skill set to respond to the procurement should they so wish, and it has no other significance.”
The Irish Times reported in May that senior health service figures believe the final cost of the new maternity facility was likely to be in the region of €2 billion.
The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) asked the Department of Health for a report on the costs of the NMH project.
It was reported last week that the department’s secretary general, Robert Watt, told the committee in a letter that “it is important not to pre-empt the cost at which the market determines it can build this hospital for”, adding this is a “commercially sensitive process”.
Mr Watt said significant enabling works were required for the NMH project and total expenditure to date was about €147 million, including VAT of €23 million.
He said the successful tenderers for the project would “enter into a non-binding pre-construction services agreement.
“This process, which is the application of a direct learning from the National Children’s Hospital Ireland project, is bringing the successful tenderers together with the project team to ensure that all tenderers and suppliers are agreed on a detailed programme of works before they begin.”