Infrastructure procurement

On Northern Ireland’s most significant healthcare PFI to date, we’re independent tester for the new laboratory and pharmacy service centre – the first such appointment in the provincePrivate finance is an increasingly popular route for governments around the world to fund and operate capital intensive infrastructure – and the health sector is no exception, particularly in the UK where new hospitals are being built and existing buildings upgraded using initiatives such as PFI, NHS Procure 21 and LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust).

Drawing on the wealth of experience that saw us named Best Technical Advisor and also Best Procurement Team at the 2005 Public Private Finance Awards, we’ve been working for a number of UK NHS Trusts as they develop and improve their assets and services using PFI. As project manager/lead advisor we orchestrate with Trusts the delivery of new models of care and visions for new facilities that are affordable and attractive within the PFI market. We also support Trusts from outline business case development, through the PFI procurement process – particularly the negotiations – to the delivery of the final business case and financial close. As technical advisor we can provide expert advice on all technical matters including managing the pre-qualification and bid processes, developing contract documents, evaluating bids and taking the scheme to financial close. We can then manage the construction process in the role of funders’ monitor or independent certifier and once the scheme is built we will monitor the operation and maintenance stage. We are currently acting as independent certifier on some of the largest PFI hospitals under construction, including the Coventry and Derby PFI projects.

Among our newest assignments are two prestigious PFI contracts in the UK’s Merseyside. For Mersey Care NHS Trust Mott MacDonald experts will help drive the design, implementation and operation of the Trust’s new service model across all its facilities management services. For Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, we have been appointed to provide project management services from the development of the outline business case through procurement to financial close for a new hospital.

We’re also playing a part in the government’s privately financed NHS LIFT scheme, a national initiative aimed at improving medical care centres. And in one of the first ‘Procure 21’ partnering teams, we’ve provided the structural engineering design to the £12 million Milton Keynes Diagnostic Treatment Centre.