The unfinished Rázsochy medical complex (source: SME)
The Slovak Medical Chamber (SLK) dislikes the plan suggesting that the new University Hospital Bratislava (UNB) will be built and operated by a private concessionaire. It considers the solution disadvantageous.
“We’re convinced that the state isn’t a worse owner and property administrator than the private sector; quite the contrary,” said SLK head Marian Kollár, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
The only way this can work is with a state-guaranteed preparation and implementation of the construction and operation of the hospital, according to the SLK. It stressed the university hospital is not a commercial project, but rather a facility offering medical treatment and a base for education, science and research that should be of the highest quality and for all patients in the country.
The SLK is therefore asking to cooperate in the project with professional associations, reported TASR.
It also dislikes the proposal that the Hospital with the Polyclinics of Ss Cyril and Methodius in Bratislava’s Petržalka district should not be part of the UNB but rather become a municipal hospital. The SLK also does not have an explanation for the term “partner hospitals of the UNB” that will be the new status of several facilities in the capital.
“There should be only one UNB which should be all-embracing after so many years,” Kollár said, as quoted by TASR.
It also criticises the number of beds, claiming this is low.
“The aim is to choose a partner in the initial phase of the project from the international competition, whose task will be to create and set up the concept model of medical and non-medical processes,” Health Ministry spokesperson Zuzana Eliášová responded, as quoted by TASR.
She stressed that the hospital will be operated and owned by the state.
The spokesperson also pointed to the fact that while the project proposes to reduce the number of beds by 160 to 600, it plans to increase the subsequent, long-term, geriatric and nursing care.
The ministry expects that the construction of the new UNB building in Bratislava’s Rázsochy will cost €263 million. It will be composed of the new university hospital together with the facility in Ružinov, which will require reconstruction worth €80 million, TASR wrote.
