Queen Elizabeth II Hospital finally closed and replaced by the new Tsepong Hospital

A PPP is a contract between a public sector institution and a private party, in which the private party assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the design, financing, building and operation of a project. Critical to the definition of a PPP is that investment, and risk, is shared between the public and private partners.

In Lesotho, as part of a national healthcare strategy to improve the quality of services provided to its population, the Minister of Finance and of Development Planning spearheaded the development of a $500 million PPP to replace the country’s main referral hospital in the capital city of Maseru. The contract, which was signed in 2007, is an 18-year partnership between a South African Consortium and the Government of Lesotho to replace the existing hospital and operate three feeder clinics (Qoaling, Likotsi and Mabote), providing the full range of primary, secondary, and tertiary care to the population.

Thus Queen Elizabeth II Hospital was finally closed on saturday the 1 of October 2011 after it was discovered that it would be too expensive to renovate it., it had been serving athe nation for over a century. Around 96 patients were moved to the new hospital on saturday while those who were not so critical were transferred to filter clinics and those who had already finished their treatment were consequently discharged.

Tsepong hospital situated at Lepereng just outside Maseru town is estimated to have costed over 1.2 billion Maluti around $144,7932 million. It will be used as a referral hospital to the filter clinics. The charges are however said to remain the same as the government of lesotho has subsidised them to ensure increased accesibility to health services.