$1B Allocated to Strengthen Infrastructure Maintenance

A sum of $1 billion has been allocated to the Health Infrastructure Maintenance Fund as the Ministry of Health and Wellness prioritises preventive maintenance of healthcare infrastructure and equipment.

Portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, made the announcement during his contribution to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (May 12).

Dr. Tufton stated that the Fund is being launched to ensure that the infrastructure within the Ministry will be maintained.

“This is a Fund that will see us establishing an inventory management system to establish benchmark quality of all our infrastructure, group our infrastructure into clusters [and] provide servicing manuals for each piece of that infrastructure,” he stated.

“We are focusing on electrical, plumbing, air conditioning, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) and elevator services and will determine whether we service those in house or through some outsourcing,” he added.

The Minister noted that key performance indicators (KPIs) will be in place for service providers who wish to conduct business with the Ministry.

“I want to use the opportunity to say to service providers, the day of having extended service or being the sole supplier to support the maintenance of our health infrastructure without having inventory in stock, without having the personnel, they have to fly in from Europe – those days are coming to an end,” Dr. Tufton said.

He further stated that “there will be KPIs in place where if you want to work with health to maintain infrastructure, you must have the expertise and the equipment in order to do so”.

The Health Minister told the Lower House that more information will be provided on the Fund at another time.