Israel’s fifth-largest city, Ashdod, is gearing up to receive its first hospital, after a lengthy public and legal struggle. Three companies are bidding to build and operate it.
The bidding for the construction, planning and operation of the new hospital ended on Tuesday. The three bidding groups, whose identities are being kept under wraps, will be subjected to a rigorous series of financial and professional checks over the coming weeks by a governmental team representing the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Health, and the Israel Lands Authority. It is not yet known if the hospital will be required to be Kassam-proof.
The winner of the tender is scheduled to be chosen by April of next year. The new hospital is to be constructed on a 70-dunam plot (18 acres) of city-owned land in the eastern part of the port city.
The struggle for a hospital in Ashdod was led, among others, by MK Sopha Landver of the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party. The case reached the Supreme Court, which rejected Finance Ministry claims that a new hospital could not be economically justified, ruled in favor of the residents instead.
At present, the hospitals nearest to Ashdod are Barzilai in Ashkelon and Kaplan in Rehovot.