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Robert-Jan Bumbacher did not contradict a point yesterday: “The project requires courage,” said the chairman of the Management Board of the Basel University Hospital (USB). In fact, the numbers of the “Health Campus”, which the USB presented together with the canton in a press videoconference, can make you dizzy: 75,000 square meters of surface, equivalent to more than ten football fields, should be in the current hospital area between Petersgraben and La Schanzenstrasse will be completely rebuilt. Cost point: 1.4 billion francs.
The cost estimate has increased by 200 million
And that is actually being built: from 2022 to 2028, the tower of the new Clinic 2 will be erected. From 2024 to 2030 the construction of the additional clinic 3, previously known as “Perimeter B”, will be carried out in parallel. Between 2031 and 2038, the base construction of Clinic 2 will be built. Since the current Clinic 2 will be replaced, there will be an increase in usable space from a good 30,000 to a total of 171,000 square meters.
Vision 2038: Clinic 2 at the front in Petersgraben, Clinic 1 with the unchanged women’s clinic on the right and Clinic 3 on Schanzenstrasse with the second tower in the upper right.
© Provided
At the last campus presentation in May 2019, the estimated cost was CHF 200 million less. Yesterday it was said that conversion and castling costs are now taken into account. But the estimated costs of Clinic 3 by Herzog & de Meuron and Rapp Architects are now 391 instead of 300 million francs. This with a cost accuracy of +/- 25 percent. However, in 2022, the Grand Council must first approve the new development plan for K3’s 68-meter-high tower to be allowed. Only the 416 million francs for the Clinic 2 tower is more accurate, as the construction request will be submitted in the coming weeks.
USB expects earnings drop in 2020 and 2021
What is striking: USB has decided not to resize the “Campus Gesundheit” in any way compared to the first presentation. The project was based on the assumption that the USB would be merged with the Baselland Cantonal Hospital. Furthermore, the university hospital looks to an economically uncertain future. In 2019, the all-important Ebitda margin of 8.5 percent was pleasantly close to the ten percent required by the cantonal owner’s strategy, from which investments can be made on their own.
But last but not least, the corona pandemic will leave clear traces, as Bumbacher and hospital director Werner Kübler admit at the press conference: they expect a drop in earnings in 2020 and 2021. Kübler only talks about “ short-term setbacks ”and refers to its own financial plan, which has been reviewed several times and also presented to the government. He is convinced: “We can achieve the necessary profit margins on our own.”
If the need decreases, a reduction would be possible
When asked yesterday, there was no detailed information on how USB wants to deliver higher returns. An expansion of the offer is hardly conceivable, since the health director Lukas Engelberger wants to achieve the opposite with the lists of joint hospitals of both Basle from the summer of 2021. The governing council, which was also present yesterday, obviously will supports the principle of hope if it is maintained: “The government is behind this generational project. We have confidence in the university hospital. “
However, the trust does not go that far, as Engelberger announced that the USB would have to report annually to the government on the financial viability of the campus. Bumbacher already assumes that “he will need commitments.” However, he emphasizes the high structural flexibility of the building envelope in both new buildings, and does not completely rule out subsequent resizing: “With the construction of the plinth of Clinic 2, we could reduce the area if necessary.” One thing is clear: that also requires courage.
