COFIDES contributed to progress and development in Colombia by partnering with Grupo Ortiz in the roll-out of the Bosa Hospital facility. Favouring investment in the healthcare industry is very important for the company, especially in the present scenario characterised by the pandemic. COVID-19 has bared the need for public-private collaboration to improve healthcare infrastructure in regions such as Latin America, severely affected by the pandemic. Support for the healthcare industry in developing countries is one of COFIDES’s strategic lines for future action.
"Grupo Ortiz’s interest in partic ipating in franchises with multilateral funding presently on offer in Colombia, given that they will constitute a significant milestone in the country’s development and progress"
Juan Antonio Carpintero, Grupo Ortiz Chairman.
With that in mind, in 2021 the company aided Grupo Ortiz in the design, construction, fitting out and maintenance of Bosa Hospital in Colombia. COFIDES purchased 45 % of Promotora Hospital de Bosa. S.A.S. share capital and 45 % of its subordinated debt up to a total of EUR 11 million.
The respective funding was drawn from COFIDES’s own and foreign investment fund (FIEX) resources. Grupo Ortiz’s total investment in the project amounts to approximately EUR 77 million.
According to Grupo Ortiz Chairman Juan Antonio Carpintero, ‘partnering with COFIDES is cause for great satisfaction for our company, inasmuch as it ensures quality and social and economic efficiency in the roll-out of the Bosa Hospital franchise’. Carpintero also stresses ‘Grupo Ortiz’s interest in partic ipating in franchises with multilateral funding presently on offer in Colombia, given that they will constitute a significant milestone in the country’s development and progress’.
The hospital, which will provide healthcare for over 400 000 people, is the first medical centre in Colombia to be built and operated under public-private partnering arrangements.
Bosa Hospital forms part of Colombia’s District Development Plan 2016-2020, one of whose objectives is to improve healthcare services. The hospital is expected to be operational in 2023 and will be the first medical centre in Colombia to be built and operated under public-private partnering arrangements. As part of the southwest sub-network, the project will benefit a population of over 400 000 residents in four suburban areas, Kennedy, Fontibón, Puente Aranda and Bosa. The four buildings envisaged by Grupo Ortiz will cover a built area of 30 000 m2, accommodating the 215 new beds to be added to the public health system. The single 60-bed hospital presently in place in Bosa is unable to attend to all the area’s needs.
"We at COFIDES feel proud to work on this project just at a time when we have become even more aware of the importance of and need for quality healthcare centres. We hope this hospital will soon cover all area residents’ needs"
Marta Blond, project analyst.
According to OECD data, this sub-network is the one with the smallest percentage of beds, 17.76 %, in all Bogotá. The Grupo Ortiz project is expected to be awarded the highest category impact (‘Advanced’), in light of its huge potential to improve the healthcare presently accessible in Colombia by attending primarily to Bogotá’s most vulnerable communities. The expected benefits will run far into the future in terms of access to healthcare and job creation.
The hospital is designed to detect and attend to patients with chronic non-infectious diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, chronic pulmonary disorders and cancer, the four most common causes of illness in Bogotá and Colombia. Structural construction was finalised in May 2022 and the enclosures and masonry works are scheduled for completion in late November.
Related SDGs
