Honduras launches tender for design of 2 hospitals

In the middle of a health infrastructure crisis in Honduras, with more than 70% of the country’s public hospitals in very poor condition, the government looks to award a contract to design two new hospitals. 

According to process SEI-4713-BID-GESALUD-01-2022, published by health ministry unit GESALUD, one facility will be built in capital Tegucigalpa and a second one in San Pedro Sula, in Cortés department. 

The deadline to receive queries is February 3, and the deadline for bids February 20. No date was announced to name the winner.

Health minister José Manuel Matheu told newspaper El Heraldo last August that the two hospitals are part of a seven-project package the ministry plans to have built before 2025. 

Matheu said the funds for construction of the Tegucigalpa hospital would come from a donation made by the Taiwanese government. 

The San Pedro Sula hospital, which would have 150 beds, would be built with a loan provided by the Spanish government, the  official said at the time. Investment would top US$45mn.

At the end of August, the Spanish government said it had granted a US$70mn loan to Honduras to build three hospitals: one in San Pedro Sula, a general hospital in Salamá, in Olancho department, and another in Nueva Ocotepeque.

The national anticorruption council (CNA) said in October that 78% of Honduras’ public hospitals are in very poor condition, with 32 having “obsolete and expired buildings, which are 50 to 80 years old on average and some 140 years since their construction, which is the case of San Felipe hospital in Tegucigalpa.”