Swakop cannot give free land for hospital

The Swakopmund municipal council decided it cannot give free land to the Ministry of Health and Social Services to build a regional referral hospital, and to expand the Tamariskia clinic.

Chairman of the management committee, Erkki Shitana made the statement at the ordinary council meeting last week. The health ministry is looking for 20 hectares of free land for the new regional hospital, and about 7 000 square metres of free land for the expansion of the clinic. Past correspondence from 2015 between the two parties, however, shows that the municipality approved the application, but that the land would have to be bought at a price determined on the average of three valuations. The ministry indicated last year that it wanted to have a regional referral hospital at Swakopmund by 2023.