Chinese Government provides grant for feasibility study for the expansion of the University Hospital in Sfax (Linked to Record ID#30323)

On October 8, 2019, China signed an exchange of letters with Tunisia for a feasibility study for the expansion of the University Hospital in Sfax. This project specifically captures the feasibility study, not the actual expansion.

The value of the feasibility study is unknown, and it is also unclear whether the feasibility study has been carried out.

The prime minister of Tunisia, Youssef Chahed, stated that China would provide a second donation for the expansion of the hospital; the first donation refers to the grant provided by China to Tunisia to build the hospital, captured in linked Record ID#30323.

Chinese Ambassador to Tunisia Wang Wenbin and Tunisian Acting Minister of Health Sonia Ben Sheikh signed on behalf of the two governments at the Prime Minister's Office of Tunisia.

The expansion, as envisioned, would include 6,000 square meters of floor space with 1.8 hectares reserved for future development.

The proposed extension would house 6 operating rooms (for orthopedics, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, cardiology, etc.), a hospitalization block with a capacity of 52 beds, and a major burns unit with 15 beds.

According to the Tunisian prime minister, the hospital's extension would include a large-scale surgical center, and construction was to start during the first half of 2020.

The inauguration ceremony for the original hospital building (#30323), however, did not occur until December 2020 due to COVID-19-related complications, so it is unclear if this timeline was honored.