By Margot Thomas

AFTER  years of delay starting with the Martinelli administration and extending through the reign of Juan Carlos Varela the contract to build a replacement for the aging and overcrowded Children’s Hospital (Hospital del Niño )  is expected to be delivered on Monday. June  17

 The hospital will be built on the site of the former US embassy on Avenida  Balboa and the price tag, including a new maternity wing for Hospital Santo Tomas, will be$614,118,054.

The hospital will have 476 beds14 operating rooms and 700 parking spaces. The maternity wing will have  244 beds and  14 operating rooms.

The ruling of the General Directorate of Public Procurement on Friday, June 16 that the Acciona Construction consortium is the winner of the tender “'does not admit any appeal”'.  

The Children's Hospital  authorities  who have lobbied and organized street protests in the past said in  a statement

"The Children's Hospital collaborators are extremely happy that this phase of the process has been resolved. "We see more clearly the desire to have new facilities for the benefit of our pediatric population,." said Paul. Gallardo, medical director of the hospital center.

Gallardo expects the Ministry of Health to award the contract on  Monday, while Esteban Perdomo, president of the Association of Medical Specialists of the Hospital del Niño, said that they trust the entity to accelerate t this process in such a way that it can continue with the following phases.

"Elizabeth Castaño is a pediatric infectologist at the hospital who has been one of those organizing demonstrations is more cautious.  First, she says, we must see if there are funds to start the project and second, she is concerned about the international public accusations against Acciona.

'We must monitor every expense that is made and monitor that the materials and finished are of quality. It is a hospital that will be built, not a street, "she told La Estrella.

The history of the construction of the new hospital began on August 14, 2012, when the then president Ricardo Martinelli, presided over the act of handing over the land and announced the construction, starting the following year. That day, the Martinelli government transferred the land of the former US Embassy to the Ministry of Health (Minsa), after protests against a public-private real estate project that the Ministry of Economy and Finance intended to develop.

The act of transfer was only a photo-op for Martinelli. On the site not a stone was moved during the Martinelli administration and in another place, the trumpeted Hospital Cty  that supporters wanted to name after him, stumbled from one crisis to another 

With the arrival of the current Government, a company prequalification tender was held,  but after, five years work was not started and the price tag swelled by over $300, million.

It will be up to the Cortizo government to see that the aging and overcrowded crumbling  Hospital del Nino is replaced by a facility worthy of its staff and young patients.