Dear Tamar,

I hope this email find you well!  Have you had a chance to discuss implementation arrangement and investment priorities during your meeting on Friday?

Could you please help us by answering a few questions regarding Georgia’s approach to working with the private sector for COVID-19?

• Would the Ministry consider using Bank Facilitated Procurement (BFP) among other alternative procurement options? Our procurement specialist Tanvir informed us about this opportunity, if the Ministry is interested in, we can share the BFP request.  For some critical equipment such as ventilators, we heard that waiting period is quite long.
• Is the government already contracting with private facilities to deliver COVID-19 services or are there plans to do so? During the first call, if we recall correctly, you told us that an assessment of ICU/ventilator capacity at private facilities showed that there was sufficient supply of ventilators in Georgia to meet even the high-infection scenarios. If there is indeed sufficient availability of ventilators and ICUs, perhaps it may not be necessary to purchase additional ventilators for the public sector. The situation may differ by region – for example, if there are fewer private facilities with ICU/ventilator capacity near Abkhazia, there is a strong justification for investing to equip Rukhi hospital. It would be great if we could have more information on this. Is the private sector willing to provide such services?
• If the private sector will be involved in the COVID-19 response, will the government procure personal protective equipment (PPE) and other supplies/consumables and distribute them to private facilities or will private facilities do this on their own?
• Could you also please provide the total number of existing (fully equipped) ICU beds in the public and private sectors?

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