The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 25 million to the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire of Fort-de-France to underpin its 2001-2007 multiannual investment programme. This is the first EIB operation in support of a hospital facility in France.
The centrepiece of this programme is the construction of the "Maison de la Femme, de la Mère et de l'Enfant" (MFE), which alone represents 40% of the project cost. The MFE, a Level III Perinatal Centre (the highest level of care), will have a capacity of 171 beds and will cover the entire region's gynaecology, obstetrics, neonatal care and paediatrics requirements. The MFE will also be equipped to coordinate care for mothers and children in conjunction with the technical facilities of the Pierre Zobda-Quitman (PZQ) hospital, on whose site it will be located. Also scheduled are the modernisation and renovation of the three CHU hospitals (PZQ, Clarac and Victor Fouche), as well as replacement of the majority of bio-medical and IT equipment.
The EIB is financing this project under the headings of support for regional development in the European Union and the promotion of human capital. It is thereby assisting the integration and development of Martinique, which is classified as a priority area for Community action through the structural funds (Objective 1). The project will provide the region's women and children with better quality care and will help reduce perinatal and infant mortality rates and premature birth rates, which are twice as high as the national average.
The Fort-de France CHU is the principal multidisciplinary hospital operator in Martinique. As a health care institution for the local population, it caters for some 160 000 people in the North Caribbean area and Fort-de-France. At regional and cross-regional level, it serves a population of some one million.
This EIB operation will enable the CHU to diversify the borrowings required to finance its investment programme, on the keenest interest rate and maturity terms. It may be supplemented by further EIB loans, up to a total amount of EUR 50 million approved by the Bank's Board of Directors for this project.
Promoting human capital by financing projects in the health and education sectors has been one of the EIB's priorities since 1997 as such investments contribute to social cohesion in the European Union. To date, the EIB has provided individual loans worth some EUR 3.2 billion for technological upgrading and the creation of hospital infrastructure and health care facilities in the European Union (eastern Germany, Spain, Austria, Greece, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy). Over 86% of this was advanced for projects located in regional development areas. The health sector in non-member states (Hungary, Poland, Syria and Cyprus) has also benefited from EIB loans totalling EUR 204 million.