Rīga hospital could miss out on EU funding over unsuccessful tender

Latvia could be left without a new hospital and miss out on almost €100 million of the European Union’s Recovery Plan money. Riga East Clinical University Hospital (RAKUS) was looking for a builder for its new Infectious Diseases Hospital, but nobody applied for the tender, Latvian Radio reported on November 27.

 The Ministry of Health (MoH) has given the Board of the Eastern Hospital three more days to find a solution to the situation.

Normunds Staņēvičs, head of the hospital, did not comment at all on the tender, which ended without a result. Emīls Pūlmanis, head of the hospital’s Project Management Office, said: “Unfortunately, in the second round, when a bid was to be submitted on the basis of the technical solution, no one submitted a bid.”

Why? Riga East Hospital cannot say yet.

But hopes of securing the almost €100 million promised in EU funding are diminishing by the day, as the project requires the hospital to be built by mid-2026.

The new hospital building should be located next to the helipad and Gaiļezers Hospital. Both the Center for Infectiology and the Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases would be relocated here.

The latter was built 53 years ago and still resembles the Soviet Union. No major renovations are being carried out because it was known that the new hospital would be built soon.

“Our hospital does not have a single ward with a separate bathroom. That says it all. Not to mention the ventilation, not to mention the fact that the floors and wall coverings are damaged,” said Andra Cīrule, head doctor at the Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases.

Some wards still date back to 1971. They look like it, too. The World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Multi-resistant Tuberculosis Research is also located here. Doctors from all over the world come here to study.

“We are ashamed! Yes! We may be used to it ourselves and not see many things. But we are ashamed,” said Cīrule.

The Ministry of Health is also shocked that the construction tender ended without a result.

“Whether the hospital will remain unbuilt at all is a moot point. We expect proposals from the hospital for alternative scenarios. The deadline is very limited due to the conditions of the Recovery Fund, which has to be used by mid-2026,” said Boriss Kņigins, Deputy State Secretary for Finance at the Health Ministry.

The unrealistic construction deadlines were probably the main reason why none of the four builders submitted their project. The board has until Friday to report to the ministry on how it plans to salvage the situation and still absorb almost €100 million.

“The hospital’s task is to understand why this has happened. So that it doesn’t happen again in the re-tender. If we don’t find this funding in other ways, we could lose it as a sector,” said a ministry spokesman.

In the meantime, a piece of concrete fell on a balcony at the Tuberculosis Hospital. The balcony doors were already closed due to safety fears. A new hospital is not a whim but an acute need.