Lakeside’s large expat retiree population should be pleased to hear that construction of a first-rate hospital in the area finally appears to be on the horizon.
The project being put together by private investors in partnership with the Chapala government was revealed Wednesday, March 25 at a press conference held in the office of Mayor JoaquIn Huerta.
The hospital is set up to be designed, built, operated and maintained under the terms of a legal figure known as a Public-Private Association (APP) involving three private companies owned by highly respected medical professionals, building contractors and legal and financing experts. 
The Hospital Laguna Shore is to be located on a 3,500-square-meter lot facing the highway in Riberas del Pilar, acquired by the private investors. The company owned by practicing physicians will operate the full-service, three-story facility, complete with three surgical theaters, a maternity wing, an emergency room, high-tech imagery, laboratory, chemotherapy, dialysis, physical therapy, dental care and medial consultation areas, 42 hospital rooms and underground parking for 230 vehicles. The total area of construction comes to just over 8,000 square meters.
The municipal government will be responsible for facilitating the necessary licenses and permits and supervising spending of a special budget from the federal Treasury for maintenance costs. The initiative will also entail a formal endorsement by the federal government to generate a financing trust fund.
Dr. Jorge Gonzalez Urzua, spokesman for the promoters, estimates that investors will sink 300 million pesos into the hospital project. With bank credit transactions already far along, he indicated that construction may begin within as little as three months, as soon as the financing arrangements and government red tape details are sorted out. Once building gets under way, the Hospital Laguna Shore will open its doors within 15 months.