Ferrovial’s Medico Vanguard consortium will have to bid again following health trust's decision to split £350m PFI to attract more interest.
The £350m PFI Plymouth Hospitals project has ditched its only bidder, a team led by Amey’s Spanish parent Ferrovial.
The Health Trust intends to break up the scheme into at least two packages to lower bid costs of interested contractors, so that it can attract more interest. Ferrovial’s Medico Vanguard consortium had been left as the only bidder for the scheme after two rivals pulled out.
The Trusts decided that having only one bidder was anti-competitive and could not ensure they would get value for money. Project director Andy Ibbs said: “It would have been far from ideal to be negotiating with just one bidder in a major project such as this. It would have presented problems such as lack of visible competition and made it very difficult to ensure that what we deliver is the best value for money.”
Full proposals for the project are being completed and will be put to the health board at the end of July. Invitations to bid for the first package are expected to go out in early autumn.
