3' min read
3' min read
IIn Apulia, for two new hospitals whose construction work is nearing completion and which are to be operational by the first half of 2025, there are three that are still on paper, and all of them are strategic for users in the centre-south of the region. For the new hospitals of Andria for Bat and Maglie-Melpignano for southern Salento, precious time has been lost because the contracting stations have allowed the programme agreement providing for state funding of EUR 318 million for their construction to expire without the legally binding obligations, i.e. the awarding of the tender for their construction, being taken on within 30 months from the signing of the agreement on 18 November 2020.
Between Andria and Maglie, the former is further ahead. In fact, the Asl Bt general management is promising certain deadlines for this second-level hospital with 300 beds: having formalised the task of revising the project (to be scaled down) as an extension to the same team that was initially awarded the contract, the final design should be submitted by 16 August. Then the tender for the executive one and the realisation of the works should start. "With the new economic framework of the revised work, which should be close to 220-230 million, it will be possible to promote," says Vito Montanaro, director of the region's health department, "the new programme agreement after the old one of 138 million, of which 131.1 million will be borne by the State. In Maglie (400 beds, level one) there is further back. Planned on 12 hectares to replace the closed hospitals of Maglie and Poggiardo and provide a public alternative to Tricase's 'Panìco', the new hospital, with its futuristic design, is on the backburner: the initial EUR 140 million has become EUR 416 million (including a doubling of construction costs and furnishings) and the project needs to be remodelled not only because it is too expensive, but also so as not to interfere with the widening of the SS 275 Maglie-Leuca highway, which has been awaited for decades. The project must therefore be thoroughly revised. This is why an attempt is being made to verify, also by resorting to a pro-veritate legal opinion, the possibility of modifying it by resorting to the same ATI as in the preliminary design phase. Without a new economic framework, the procedure for the programme agreement is destined to remain at the pole, and the timeframe for construction is a long way off. For the one in northern Bari between Bisceglie and Molfetta - a three-storey, horizontal structure, an area of 20 hectares, mostly olive groves, 250 beds to serve a population of 235,000 - the final design should be ready by this September, to be followed by the awarding of the construction work necessarily by December 2025, because here too the deadline for the programme agreement for funding of EUR 192 million between the region and the Ministry of Health is looming. On the other hand, work on the construction of the Monopoli-Fasano (300 beds) and Taranto (500 beds, second level) hospitals is nearing completion. For the former they should be completed in these weeks (the deadline was 24 July 2023, then there were two extensions), for the latter in December of this year (as of today, 7% of the remaining production is missing). For both hospitals, tenders are under way for furnishings and equipment.For Monopoli, after the favourable opinion of the ministerial investment nucleus, the decree of the Ministry of Health has arrived for the allocation of resources for furnishings, amounting to 84.5 million, 0.2 million of which will be borne by the State.For Taranto, on the other hand, the resources for furnishings and equipment have been allocated by a Ministerial Decree and amount to approximately 205 million, and the start-up of operations is scheduled for July 2025. Similarly for Monopoli, at least as an initial start-up.>On Monopoli there is also a casus everything to be clarified with sums for 9.6 million recognised to the company (WeBuild group) by the technical advisory board as Covid charges, "but calculated - explains Fabiano Amati, chairman of the first regional commission - as of 15 months before the Covid case number one in China. I asked the local health authority to challenge this decision of the board, and after my complaint the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Auditors acquired all the board's determinations, which were abnormal, both in my assessment and in that of the works management and also in many cases of the Rup'..
