Four New Hospitals to Open in Georgia by Close of 2016
Deputy Minister of Health, Valeri Kvaratskhelia, has announced that four new hospitals are being built in different regions of Georgia.
A multifunctional university hospital in Zugdidi region, Western Georgia, will be equipped with modern technologies and 220 beds. After the conclusion of its construction in 2016, the hospital will provide medical assistance for the residents of the surrounding villages as well as Abkhazia. Classrooms and a library will also be built for students and residents on the hospital territory. Additionally, there will be sports facilities, parking lots, internal roads, parks and ponds and a hostel for residents, families and relatives of patients.
The new hospital in Dedoplistskaro, Eastern Georgia, with 25 beds and modern technology, will start functioning in spring 2016 and is set to provide medical assistance for 16 villages with more than 30,000 residents.
A hospital with 10 beds and modern technologies is being built in Lentekhi, north-west Georgia and will open in autumn, 2016, and a further hospital, with 15 beds, will be opened next summer in Kharagauli.
According to Deputy Minister Kvaratskhelia, a 20-bed Children’s National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases is also being planned, which should be completed by the end of August 2016. Furthermore, the construction of the administrative building for the National Center of Disease Control and Public Health is scheduled. The total cost of the projects is around 60 million GEL.
The Deputy Minister also discussed the on-going tender on three large hospitals in Tbilisi: the Republican Hospital, Tbilisi Cancer Center and the Children’s Infectious Diseases Hospital.
The winning consortium will be required, together with the Government, to manage, own and operate the hospitals with the public-private partnership projects (PPP) principle. Austrian consortium Alpha medic is the only company to have moved onto the second round of the tender.
In total the three hospitals will have approximately 570 beds and their management will decide the number of medical personnel that will need training.
According to Deputy Minister Kvaratskhelia, the Ministry of Economy is currently working on a bill regarding the coexistence of healthcare facilities with private and public agencies, as there are no corresponding regulations to date.
Ana Akhalaia