SaS Welcomes Location of National Hospital, Fears Transparency of Funding

Bratislava, April 29 (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party welcomes the location where the new national hospital should be built, with SaS MP Tomas Szalay stating that the Bratislava borough of Vajnory has good transport links to the motorway. However, the opposition MP is concerned about the transparency of construction financing and overpricing. He 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," Szalay told a press conference. However, the transport arrangement of the area will have to be fundamentally improved, according to him, if it is taken 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 criticised 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. am/mcs