The new major hospital would cost about 300 million euros.
“Clinical Hospital Centre Osijek is dilapidated and construction of a new hospital is badly needed. Repairing old buildings which were built a hundred years ago should end, and the state will have to look for solutions in this regard”, said Health Minister Milan Kujundžić during a recent visit to the hospital in Osijek, reports Jutarnji List on February 8, 2017.
The current hospital administration presented earlier an idea to move the hospital to the Eurodom Business Centre, but that is not feasible due to a number of reasons – lack of empty space, the need for additional investment in modification of the building which should previously be bought for about 100 million euros.
However, the previous management team launched in the spring of 2014 an initiative to build a new, modern hospital. They found the location near the southern bypass road, where there are 17 hectares of town-owned and state-owned land. Osijek Mayor Ivan Vrkić expressed the readiness of the local authorities to give up the land in return for some other state property.
In May 2014, the government included the new hospital into the framework programme of building, upgrading and reconstruction of public buildings under the public-private partnership principle, which also included construction of hospitals in Popovača, Varaždin, and Rijeka.
“The new hospital is needed for this region. The present conditions, with old buildings at four locations which do not meet basic sanitary and health standards and are extremely energy inefficient, are the main reason why we have proposed the construction of a new hospital, under the public-private partnership principle, which would also include facility management, which would be the first such case in Croatia”, said Saša Lamza, the former manager of the hospital.
According to rough estimates, reconstruction of existing buildings would cost at least 500 million kuna with questionable results, while the construction of a new hospital would cost around 300 million euros.
“We could get a modern hospital with 1,800 to 2,000 beds, where all medical departments would be located together, with excellent conditions for patients (single and double rooms) and the staff, with energy savings, excellent road access, and a sufficient number of parking spaces. Importantly, non-health services within the hospital would be handled by facility management led by private investors. As for the current hospital buildings, they could be either sold or leased”, said Lamza.
In other words, the hospital would be built and maintained by a private company, and the state would be paying rent for 25 years, after which the hospital would come into ownership of the state.
“That is a good plan that we unfortunately could not implement because all infrastructure projects in healthcare sector proceed very slowly. Rijeka and Osijek are priorities when it comes to new hospitals, and I think that the public-private ownership is the best solution. In Europe they build all new hospitals in such a way, and it is important that the state would not have to borrow any funds. The new hospital in Osijek fits into the hospital master-plan and I think that the state should proceed with this project”, said Siniša Varga, former Health Minister.
