The Ministry of Health has announced that the new surgical block of the National Clinical Hospital in Chisinau will be put into operation at the end of this month.

Construction project coordinator Adrian Varatic has told IPN that the deadline for completing the project was extended as the company that supplies the equipment transmitted the technical specifications to the general contractor later than expected.

The reason for the delay was the political instability of the spring-summer of 2013. In such conditions, the financing agreement with the Government of Austria was approved by the Government of Moldova by over two months later than projected. Under the agreement, an Austrian contractor will deliver medical equipment to Chisinau with financial support from the Austrian side. Adrian Varatic assured that all these delays will not affect the contractual price of the facility.

The construction works started in the spring of 2009. It was then announced that the block will be ready by August 20, 2013. The block is over 10,000 square meters in area. It will have four stories, 16 surgery halls and 75 beds for patients in intensive care. The new building will include a sterilization block, an emergency and metabiopsy laboratory and a blood bank.

The cost of the project is €26.5 million. Of this sum, US$3 million is the World Bank’s loan, €9 million is the concessional loan of the Council of Europe Development Bank, €3 million is the grant of the Neighborhood Investment Facility, while the rest of the money was provided by the Government and other donors.