CUHK Medical Centre (CUHKMC) is the first private hospital in Hong Kong that has adopted the Design and Build (D&B) procurement approach for the construction project, instead of the commonly used traditional approach.

In traditional projects, the clients select the architects to design plans and specifications before the projects are tendered for building contractors. Meanwhile, for D&B contracts, main contractors are appointed early in the projects, and construction works start in advance of completion of architectural drawings as design development and a certain extent of site works will take place simultaneously.

The D&B approach allows the hospital to be built with increased certainty in the cost and timeframe, shortened programme overlapping design and construction, as well as flexibility in adoption of latest technological advances with less urgency to make procurement decisions.

Upon stages of careful pre-qualification and tendering exercise of approximately 9 months, China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) Ltd (China State) was appointed as the Main Contractor of CUHKMC D&B project in August 2016. In managing the project, CUHKMC has set up a strong project governance structure back up by professional expertise, a deep engagement process with the potential clinical users, a fair and open relationship supported by effective communication among all parties, including CUHKMC, China State, the Project Management Consultant, and the Quantity Surveying Consultant.