Spending spotlight moves to modular hospital

Panama’s $10.9  million  modular hospital,  is the  latest project related to expenditures  to fight the coronavirus  threat to come under scrutiny

Originally conceived to serve the most critical patients of the Covid-19, will now  admit  other patients with less severe symptoms  to free up beds  in  medical centers and hospitals where there are virus, so cases that they can attend to patients with other ailments.

Public Works Minister  Rafael Sabonge , who was in charge of the project, which cost $ 6.9 million construction and $ 4 million for medical equipment) has already been completed, but is not yet operating.

The vice minister of Health, Luis Sucre, said on  that the protocol for the transfer of the work to the Ministry of Health has already started and with this last step it can begin to function.

Aurora Vernaza, who started work last week, was named director .

The work was completed in less than 30 days. But it has been at the center of Adebate, because citizens demand to know how the contract with the chosen company was agreed, and the costs, among other things reports La Prensa.

Rafael Sabonge, Minister of Public Works and the face of Laurentino Cortizo's cabinet with which he is associated with the project, talks about this construction, which, he explains, would normally have taken 18 months to complete.

Why was the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) in charge of the work and not the Ministry of Health (Minsa)? It is one of the frequently asked questions.

Sabonge explains that in March, when the emergency was decreed, the Minsa, portfolio in charge of Rosario Turner, was fully involved in the health crisis and, a few days after the first case was identified March 9), the MOP started doing the work. They were uncertain days and, , they believed that they would have triple the cases that the country has today.

The medical center, which Cortizo named the Hospital Integrado Panamá Solidario, was made with the parameters of a special emergency procedure, which gives the government freedom to maneuver in times of crisis shortening processes. Sabonge says that despite the fact that this modality allowed them to choose a single company without having to look for more quotes, they studied the offer of three who had experience in the area: Va Project Hopsa ($9.9 million), Turmaks ($18 million), and SmartBrix ($ 69 million), who got the contract. "We told them: we have no design, you have to propose the design to us. What we need is this number of beds (80 for semi-intensive care, 20 for intensive care), and obviously they have to comply with the standards of the Ministry of Health ”. According to the papers published in Panamá Compra, SmartBrix was the only company that said it could complete the work in 30 days, as the others had longer manufacturing and delivery times.

Construction included the modular structure, lighting, conditioning, electrical system, bathroom equipment, and fire detection systems. The medical costs was not considered, because according to the minister, the MOP is not empowered to do so. In principle, it was the Ministry of the Presidency, headed by the Vice President of the Republic, José Gabriel Carrizo, who was in charge of managing that purchase with the support of a technical team, but now everything has passed into the hands of the Minsa. Sabonge handed over the keys to the hospital to President Cortizo on April 16.

How much does it cost to equip the modular hospital? The minister says he does not know the exact figure, but it was originally estimated at $4 million. “There is a very large price variability. When we started to build this, there was uncertainty and variability in the prices of medical equipment, ”he says.

The medical center is on the grounds of Albrook Mall, the shopping center that houses the country's transportation terminal. The official says that the first thing they did was find a central location, and not far from the hospital complex of the Social Security Fund, and Albrook Mall, fit those specifications.