Illustrative image of the emergency department at the faculty hospital in Banská Bystrica. (source: TASR - Dušan Hein)
Two hospitals in Martin, north Slovakia, and Banská Bystrica, central Slovakia, will be built by June 2026, it has been announced, as the government looks to ensure money from the Recovery Plan is not lost.
However, the date specifies only when both buildings will have been finished to the level of their structure, but not to the stage where they will be able to receive patients. Further funding will be required after that.
Both towns were selected by Slovakia's current technocratic government because they were the most suitable to meet the date and conditions set by the Recovery Plan.
The total cost of the construction of the new hospital in Martin is €330 million excluding VAT, with the Recovery Plan covering €256 million.
The project is the biggest in the health sector and has been years in the making. The hospital should have 660 beds, 19 operating rooms, and outpatient, diagnostic and therapeutic departments, a separate children's ward, and an emergency room with a trauma centre.
The new Banská Bystrica hospital will have 771 beds, 76 of which will be for acute care. It will cost €370 million excluding VAT and was chosen because constructing a new one is more effective than reconstructing the existing hospital in the city.
Originally, the Health Ministry wanted to use some of the Recovery Plan funding to cover construction of the Rázsochy hospital in Bratislava. However, the project was scrapped because various conditions could not have been met in the time allotted.
