Something close to what you describe is happening here.

The Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre opened this year, replacing on old, overcrowded hospital. It was built with a "PPP" - public-private partnership -

The new Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre project is a partnership between the BC Ministry of Health, the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)/the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA), the Fraser Health Authority, the Fraser Valley Regional Hospital District (FVRHD), and Access Health Abbotsford (AHA).

Partnerships BC oversees all aspects of the project, including planning and scheduling, procurement, contract management, project development and financial planning.

AHA is the "private" part:

Access Health Abbotsford Ltd. (AHA) has drawn upon best practices from around the world to deliver a new world-class hospital and cancer centre for residents of the Fraser Valley. Construction of the facility started in December 2004 and was completed on time and on budget in May of 2008.

The AHA team includes John Laing Investments Abbotsford Ltd., ABN AMRO Bank N.V., PCL Constructors Westcoast, MCM/Silver Thomas Hanley, Johnson Controls & Sodexho.

As a public-private partnership project, AHA was selected to design, build, finance and maintain the new hospital and cancer centre. All public health care services are delivered by the Fraser Health Authority and BC Cancer Agency.

(Raoul might recognize the Sodexho name - it's a giant French outfit that provides housekeeping and food services to hospitals ad hotels, among other services, around the world).

It's a beautiful facility. I spent some time there helping with inventory and incoming inspections of all the new medical equipment (nothing at all was moved from the old hospital). It has a huge, 5 story atrium entrance, roomy, airy corridors and elevators, great patient areas, the newest and best equipment. Every inpatient bed has an LCD video screen that is also a VOIP phone, and provides telephone and educational videos for free, plus cable TV, video games and internet access for a fee.

So far it's working, despite the doom and gloom from some quarters, especially the unions.