The new Milan Rastislav Stefanik National Hospital is set to be built in Bratislava's borough of Vajnory on Defence Ministry land, with €200 million from the recovery plan allocated for the project, which is expected to begin construction this year, according to Hlas-SD leader and Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok and Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Hlas-SD). Sasko will present the proposal at Wednesday's (April 30) off-site government meeting in Mala Lehota (Banska Bystrica region).
According to the health minister, the new hospital will provide care at the highest, fifth level. It will have 950 beds, including 850 standard and 150 intensive care beds. It is expected to serve over 44,000 hospitalised patients annually, across approximately 150 outpatient clinics and fully equipped diagnostic departments.
"This hospital will offer a complete medical profile, including education and research. It will be built on land that allows not only for the construction of the hospital, but also for the broader vision for health care in Bratislava," he said. According to the minister, the site where the hospital is to be built is large enough to accommodate educational institutions, particularly the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University.
He also wants the National Institute of Children's Diseases to be relocated to the same complex. "So that all patients who need health care can be treated together in one place," Sasko noted.
The minister added that it will also function as a university hospital, forming the foundation of education for future doctors, nurses, and health-care professionals. "It will be a top-quality facility for our scientists and researchers," he added.
Sasko considers Vajnory an ideal location, highlighting its strategic position in eastern Bratislava, planned motorway expansion, and the absence of expropriation or legal hurdles. The 30-hectare site belongs to the Defence Ministry, which will handle construction, while the Health Ministry will oversee the medical planning.
The minister stated that hospital construction will be funded through the recovery plan, 2 percent of defence spending, and a smaller share from the public budget, with talks ongoing with possible foreign partner support. He expects construction to begin in autumn, aiming for the hospital to open by 2030.
The opposition SaS party welcomes the location where the new national hospital should be built. However, they are concerned about the transparency of construction financing and overpricing. They also have doubts that the hospital could be built by 2030.
"I consider the fact that it is Vajnory to be good news. It is in line with what, for example, Bratislava region has in its strategic vision for the region, that the hospital should be built in the eastern part of the city rather than the western part," MP Tomas Szalay told a press conference. However, the transport arrangement of the area will have to be fundamentally improved, according to him, if it takes into account that in the future a campus or a dean's office of the medical faculty or a medical university is to be built in the locality. He criticized the fact that no one from the Health and Defence Ministries had communicated with politicians on the issue. In his opinion, the project is not just for one election term.
Szalay considers the financing of the construction to be questionable. "If the Defence Ministry expects that they don't have to use public procurement, they can use some type of classified mode. That could speed up construction, but obviously, it could also make it more expensive. If it's a non-transparent process, it's likely that the construction will become more expensive," stated the MP.
The opposition PS criticizes the government for not communicating with the opposition about the intention to build a new national hospital in Bratislava. At the same time, it is unknown what the role of other hospitals in Bratislava will be, how quickly the new national hospital will be built or how it will be financed.
“I call on the government - if it is serious - to bring its cards to the table, to come with a serious discussion, to sit down at the table with us, as we have been calling on it for several months, several years, and to seek a societal consensus,” said MP Oskar Dvořák (PS). He pointed out that the government only announced the location of the new national hospital, while it should also present a medical plan along with it. According to him, it would include information about what the hospital will contain or what its role will be in relation to the remaining Bratislava hospitals.
Source: TASR
