Design procurement for Tallinn Hospital announced

An €11 million international procurement for the design of the Tallinn Hospital mega-complex was announced on Monday.
The applications will be evaluated by a seven-member committee named by the Estonian Association of Architects and Tallinn City Government. The procurement's winner will likely be published in the end of June, the end date of applications for the design procurement is set at May 27.
The estimated total cost of the Tallinn Hospital project is €520 million. The planned cost of planning, design, and construction is €450 million and the remaining €70 million is made up of investments into facilities and equipment. The estimated area of the hospital complex is 127,000 m2.
According to the existing plan, the Tallinn Hospital project is set to be finished in 2027 and construction will be coordinated by the state and Tallinn itself.
Tallinn Hospital will be constructed at Narva maantee 129 in Lasnamäe, in the vicinity of the Tallinn Song and Festival Grounds. The current Eastern Tallinn Central Hospital and Western Tallinn Central Hospitals will be connected in the new complex.
Design companies from Estonia and other countries are expected to participate in the state procurement. The companies participating should also be specialized in hospital design and also carry prior experience with successful hospital projects. The companies' average net turnover over three years should also be at least €3 million.
Estonian Association of Architects president Andro Mänd noted that a construction project in this capacity is completely unique when it comes to Estonia and it will become dominant in the entire region.
Tallinn mayor Mihhail Kõlvart (Center) said: "Since the Tallinn Hospital is a large project, we are expecting both Estonian and international companies to participate in the design procurement in order to find the best possible solution for the new and modern medical campus. Also, joint applications are welcomed."
Government hopes to use EU economic recovery fund
The need for a new hospital in Tallinn has been discussed for a few years with discussion recently having picked up due to the EU economic recovery fund which has allocated Estonia up to €1.1 billion in funds from the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and React-EU.
In February, the government approved the fund distribution plan with the hope that the new medical center can be financed from the recovery fund. While a new hospital would help Estonian medicine in general and the RRF is meant to develop EU member state healthcare, the European Commission has stated that Estonia's healthcare issues reside in other fields, namely the number of doctors and nurses and the accessibility of primary level healthcare services.
According to finance minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus (Reform), the European Commission could be swayed by the fact that most of Estonia's healthcare infrastructure is more than 50 years old and the development of a new hospital could allocate healthcare workers more effectively. "The effects of the Tallinn Hospital would reach far beyond Tallinn. The region, where services could be used, is much wider and greater," Pentus-Rosimannus said.
Estonia still hopes on the RRF fund for funding for now, but ongoing negotiations could change things. Even if the commission does not approve the hospital project, Estonia could still look toward the €360 billion loan portion of the fund for financing.
Additionally, Mihhail Kõlvart has previously stated that Tallinn's contribution to the project will be €100 million.
Sven Kruup, the project's manager has said that the hospital will consist of several functions, bringing together all the specialties that are practiced today in Tallinn's hospitals.
As of 2018, central hospitals in Tallinn had some 900,000 outpatient treatment visits yearly, of which 600,000 are eventually planned to be taken over to the mega-complex in Lasnamäe. In addition, 45,000 of the annual 50,000 stationary treatment patients will be taken to Tallinn Hospital.
The initial project saw an eight-story building on the Narva maantee 129 and 129b plot with a total gross surface area of 144,645 m2 with additional buildings surrounding the central building. Further developments to the North Tallinn Medical Center (PERH) in Mustamäe are also in the city's plans for the coming years.

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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste