'Slovakia' Party: EC Concerned about Hospital Construction from Recovery Plan

Bratislava, 17 July (TASR) - The opposition 'Slovakia' party held a news conference on Thursday to express its concerns regarding the construction of hospitals using money from Slovakia's recovery plan, as it sees a real threat that the country might fail to meet the goal on time. "Since the beginning of June, we've been receiving information that the EC has a problem with the construction of our hospitals. It has great doubts that some of them will be completed on time. We've committed ourselves to having 1,980 beds available in new or modernised hospitals by next summer. The hospitals must either be completed or at least at the stage of rough construction," said MP and ex-minister of health Marek Krajci ('Slovakia', For the People and the Christian Union/KU). Krajci pointed out that the hospital project in Banska Bystrica is particularly at risk. "When experts check it, they unfortunately view the current state of readiness and construction of this hospital as insufficient and hardly likely to be finished on time," he noted. He pointed out that the government has identified the Presov hospital project as a source of salvation, as it could supply some of the beds to which Slovakia has committed itself, referring to statements made by Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) for the media. However, Krajci thinks that this is unrealistic as well. "The contract with the contractor hasn't even been signed yet," he stated. Krajci therefore described the government's intentions related to the construction of hospitals as rather unfeasible. He spoke about the threat of a fine or the loss of EU money, claiming that a cut in Slovakia's recovery plan by €600 million is being mention in EC corridors. "The EC is recommending to us that we should reduce the target regarding the number of beds and revise the recovery plan so that it will reflect the number of beds that we'll actually to able to make available in a year. In that case, we would lose money, but at least we would avoid a fine," he said. ko/df