Pope Francis has blessed the cornerstone of new Saint Martin's Hospital - the first Slovak healthcare project funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan

MARTIN, Slovakia, Sept. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- After several years of preparations, thanks to this unique moment, the realization of a modern medical centre in the heart of Slovakia is taking a more realistic shape. It happened at the Holy Mass in Šaštín-Stráže on Wednesday, September 15, 2021, which was served by Pope Francis in the presence of the highest state officials, including the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Eduard Heger.

"Blessing of the cornerstone of the new university hospital in Martin by Pope Francis is a great honour for us and at the same time a commitment to further work. For the region of Central Slovakia, Saint Martin's University Hospital will represent a significant investment", stated MUDr. Dušan Krkoška, PhD., MBA, general director of University Hospital in Martin.

The Holy Mass was also attended by the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Eduard Heger who perceives the act of blessing as follows: "I see this ceremony as the beginning of a journey to meet my government's ambitious goals in the sphere of health care. The construction project of Saint Martin's University Hospital in Martin will be implemented in the timeframe of several years and has the potential to be one of the first materializations of the Recovery and Resilience Plan results".

Saint Martin's University Hospital – the first candidate for funding from the Recovery Plan

Slovakia submitted the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Slovak Republic as one of the first EU countries. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen visited Slovakia to present the official evaluation. After being positively evaluated by the European Commission and described as an ambitious document with a pro-reform charge, it was approved by the Economic and Financial Affairs Council in June this year. For healthcare, significant resources of more than 1.5 billion EUR are planned from the recovery plan, while almost 1 billion EUR are available for the construction and reconstruction of hospitals.

Project

Construction of the new university hospital represents a radical innovation in the conditions of Slovakia's health care, which significantly transforms the "old system" and creates space for high-quality and modern health services. Expected investment costs for the project are totalling 307 million EUR. The main focus of the new hospital is to be internal medicine (mainly focused on cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, nervous system), woman-mother-child treatment, personalized medicine and oncology. In a complementary way, these will be both horizontally and vertically linked to a wide range of diagnostic procedures, interventional and surgical disciplines, urgent and specialized out-patient and in-patient health care, screening activities, patient prevention and education, training, research, and development.

Basic parameters of the new university hospital:

University Hospital Martin:
Kollárova 2, 036 01 Martin 
www.unm.sk  

PR agency:  PRime time:
Viedenská cesta 5, 851 01 Bratislava 
www.primetime.sk