The construction of the new National Oncology Institute (ION) entered the bidding phase, with a reference price of about $434.8 million.
According to the Panama Compra portal, it is a public act for better value that includes studies, designs, development of plans, construction of the work, maintenance and financing.
As part of this process, March 21 was established as the day that the homologation meeting will take place and April 28 is expected to be the presentation of economic proposals by interested companies.
In the words of Aníbal Villarreal, deputy director of Oncology, new facilities are required in the country for the care of cancer patients, since they receive some 4,000 new cases per year, the main ones being breast, prostate and cervix.
In the last administration (2014-2019), an attempt was made to develop the work in the City of Health, in Ancón, but it did not materialize in the end. The idea was that the new headquarters would be part of the Health City of the Social Security Fund (CSS); specifically, it would be located in the area that, within this project, had been designated for the Omar Torrijos Herrera Pediatric Specialty Hospital and the hotel for the insured. However, with the arrival of the new authorities of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), in July 2019, it was decided to relocate the new headquarters of the ION. The cost at the time was estimated to be about $300 million.
This decision was adopted, according to the new health authorities, because the management-transfer agreement between the Minsa, the ION and the CSS, for the project of design, construction and equipment of the new Oncology that was signed in the last government, never it was done.
Subsequently, the Minsa and the Reverted Assets Administration Unit (UABR) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance identified an area, about 200 meters from Ciudad de la Salud, for the development of this hospital project.
The land assigned by the UABR to the Minsa has an extension of just over 9.6 hectares, which are valued at $12.2 million.
Now, according to Villarreal, the publication of the tender would be a “first step” of a high ladder such as the construction of a new Oncology. “It’s better than having nothing and everything indicates that the work will be developed in stages, because it includes studies, design, construction and maintenance,” he said.
Currently, the structures of the Oncology Institute, on Ancón hill, are at their maximum capacity.
The overcrowding is noticeable from the moment you arrive at the main entrance: the corridors have been converted into waiting rooms, and the small spaces into consulting rooms. In addition, a larger area is required for medical equipment, and the chemotherapy room has a small capacity for the number of patients who come in daily for consultation.
In this context, the deputy director of the ION specified that there are 70,000 active files of patients they serve throughout the country.
