Five bid in $2b hospital project

Maroochy Journal, June 10, 2011
By Sherine Conyers

Sunshine Coast University Hospital has had five expressions of interest from the market for the $2.03 billion public private partnership project.

And local businesses may soon be able to assess their chances of getting in on some of the action.
Premier Anna Bligh said recent healthcare PPPs in Australia attracted up to four bidders at the EOI stage.

"It is a clear demonstration of the industry’s support for the Sunshine Coast University Hospital project," she said.

Evaluations of the EOIs will start, with tender documents due to be issued to short-listed bidders in August.

The PPP will see Queensland Health enter into a 25-year procurement contract with a private consortium to develop the hospital.

Regional Development Australia Sunshine Coast chairwoman and division eight councillor Debbie Blumel said work was well under way to create a web-based tool for local firms to help them tap into the region’s growth.

The tool would enable Sunshine Coast firms to establish where they sit on a five-tier scale to assess their eligibility to tender for jobs.

Ms Blumel said the site would allow companies to self-assess what tier they were at, do a skills audit of themselves and then access the training opportunities to improve those skills locally through the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation.

"Any company will be able to identify, using a survey, which tier they believe they are in, then at that tier ... they will be able to have look at what skills they are required to have or what attributes their company has to have to put in a bid," Ms Blumel said.

"So if you’re a bit light on in, say, the quality assurance requirements you’ll be able to do the QA training here to be able to.

"DEED I will bring the training programs here for those companies."