Politicians Comment Decision Not to Build Razsochy Hospital Under Recovery Plan

Politicians Comment Decision Not to Build Razsochy Hospital Under Recovery Plan
An aerial drone shot of Razsochy hospital's construction site (stock photo by TASR) 

Bratislava, June 2 (TASR) - The government's decision not to build Razsochy hospital in Bratislava under the Recovery and Resilience Plan made some politicians disappointed, whereas others expected such a decision to be made much earlier.

Ex-premier (2021-23) and leader of Democrats Eduard Heger claimed that the intent to build the Razsochy hospital with the Recovery Plan resources was a good plan. "But not everything goes as planned. If obstacles emerged and the plan couldn't be completed as a result, the Health Ministry was right to analyse risks of delays and risks of seeing the finances of the Recovery Plan squandered," he claimed, adding that even his government had already begun to work on a plan B.

House Chair Boris Kollar (We Are Family) believes that Heger is to blame. "He was thumping his chest that he would handle it all as a manager, but he failed to handle anything," said Kollar. He added that the finances should have been re-allocated to regional hospitals a lot earlier. "We've lost plenty of precious time," he declared. Instead, Kollar would buy the Bory hospital from its private owner and turn it into a state end-point hospital.

OLaNO is disappointed that the Razsochy hospital won't be built with the Recovery Plan money. "The Government Office and Health Ministry should have done their utmost to negotiate with the European Commission the postponing of deadlines, so as to make it work," said OLaNO MP Marek Sefcik.

Smer-SD MP Vladimir Balaz believes that the outcome of the project can be attributed to chaos and negligence. "I'm rather disappointed; I don't view it politically," he claimed, adding that the Razsochy hospital should be built as a PPP project. He appreciated the fact that the caretaker government found the courage to step up and say that the "game was over" and alternatives must be sought. Balaz underlined the need to have an end-point hospital in Bratislava.

SaS candidate for health minister Tomas Szalay agrees with the government's decision to nix the project and embrace the plan B. "There's simply no time to spend the Recovery Plan money on Razsochy and thus it's become necessary to re-allocate it to projects with better odds of making the deadline," he said.

Voice-SD vice-chair Zuzana Dolinkova criticised the fact that the decision to revisit the financing of the hospital was made this late in the game. "We've all known that deadlines won't be met," she said, adding that Voice-SD repeatedly asked for having the finances transferred to other hospitals in the regions. In her view, Heger's government dropped the ball.

Oskar Dvorak of Progressive Slovakia asked the Health Minister to present a health plan for Bratislava. He finds the re-purposing of the finances a rational move.

'For the People' party felt sorry that the project had to be dropped, but found the decision a right response, as problems have snowballed to such an extent that there was no way deadlines could be met.

The project of the construction of Razsochy hospital in Bratislava won't be financed under the Recovery Plan but from the state budget, Health Minister Michal Palkovic announced after a meeting with representatives of political parties on Friday.