Andria Hospital: detailed design and tender for the works approved

Five years on from the presentation of the design team and the renderings of the project, set against the backdrop of Castel del Monte, the new hospital in Andria, in the BAT province, has taken a step forward with the approval of the detailed design and the go-ahead for the publication of the tender notice for the award of the works contract. The BAT Local Health Authority has completed the preparatory procedures with Resolution No. 35 of 25 June 2026, and since 3 July, the notice for the construction of this second-level hospital, with 400 beds, serving all the municipalities in the BAT province.

The total budget for the project is 360 million, whilst the tender base price for the works alone is 195.4; the tender procedure is an open one, based on the criterion of the most economically advantageous tender, taking into account the best value for money, and the deadline for submitting tenders is 90 days, i.e. by 12.00 on 1 October 2026. The delays are largely due to the handover of the detailed design: originally expected between September and mid-October 2025, it was then postponed to last November, only to arrive seven months later. The reason for the delay was the nearly 350 design comments received from the technicians at Asset (the agency supporting the region in the process of adapting and reorganising the regional healthcare system), which forced the design team to make the necessary adjustments. So now the tender for the construction work – which is expected to be completed in three years – is in place, although the track record regarding design times does not inspire optimism.

In July 2025, the project had received a favourable opinion from the Ministry of Health’s evaluation committee, which also guaranteed the relevant funding under the supplementary programme agreement for the healthcare investment sector pursuant to Article 20 of Law 67/88. On the subject of hospital construction, following the commencement of operations in recent weeks at the new Monopoli-Fasano hospital – many months after its official opening – the San Cataldo hospital in Taranto (715 beds, 6 floors, 70 outpatient clinics, 19 operating theatres), which was due to be handed over in May 2025, is still not ready. As for another new hospital, the one in Bisceglie, serving the north of the Bari area, the Director-General of the ASL BT, Yanko Tedeschi, has announced that the detailed design will be ready by the end of the year, along with the go-ahead for the tender process to award the contract for the works. Another new hospital remains in limbo: the Sud Salento hospital in Maglie (400 beds, first-level facility), designed to cover 12 hectares to replace the closed hospitals in Maglie and Poggiardo and provide a public alternative to the ‘Panìco’ hospital in Tricase. The initial budget of 140 million has risen to 416 (due to a doubling of construction and fitting-out costs), and the project needs to be redesigned not only because it is too expensive, but also to avoid interfering with the widening of the S.S. 275 Maglie–Leuca road, which has been awaited for decades. The project therefore needs to be thoroughly reviewed, and the construction timeline is still a long way off.