Sutaj Estok: Local Authorities Satisfied with New Hospital Location in Vajnory

(STVR, 'O 5 minut 12', May 4) The local authorities are satisfied with the construction of a new hospital in the Bratislava borough of Vajnory, chairman of the coalition Voice-SD party and Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said on STVR's discussion programme 'O 5 minut 12' (Five Minutes to Twelve) on Sunday. Head of the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party and MP Michal Simecka responded that the state representatives presented the intention to build the hospital to the municipalities only a few days before the press conference where the project was introduced to the public. The interior minister added that building a hospital in Vajnory came out of an analysis as the best solution. "The health minister [Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD)] had an analysis done and he'll present it to you in a very short time, in which he assessed all the variants, both the location within the Razsochy area and the location in the Bratislava borough of Ruzinov, and clearly the best location comes out to be the area in Vajnory," said Sutaj Estok, adding that former health minister Tomas Drucker (then a Smer-SD nominee) informed about Vajnory, or the eastern part of the capital city, as the best location for the hospital during his tenure at the ministry. However, according to the Voice-SD head, the site in Vajnory didn't have the necessary permits at that time. The PS chairman thinks that it's questionable whether the new hospital in Vajnory will be built, pointing out that the current governing coalition has changed the hospital location for the third time. He would also appreciate if the government had consulted the opposition before making the decision. "What a responsible government would do is that it would say - here's a project for five years ahead and obviously we might not be in government at that point of time, so let's talk to the opposition parties that might be in government at that moment about how we can support it together. But that didn't happen. So at the moment we don't know if it really happens, it hasn't been consulted, it's only on paper," said Simecka. am