The Government Wednesday decided to initiate negotiations to sign a protocol to the agreement to finance the Republican Clinical Hospital Capacity Assessment and Modernization Project, Info-Prim Neo reports. The lending agreement for financing the project was signed with the Council of Europe Development Bank in October 2008. The protocol to this agreement extends the project implementation period from 60 to 84 months. Minister of Health Andrei Usatyi said the National Clinical Hospital is to be transformed into a regional surgery center. The extension of the project implementation period and of the financing agreement by two years will enable to build a surgery block near the main block. After modernization, the National Clinical Hospital will yearly have 25,000 hospitalized patients and 100,000 patients treated on an ambulatory basis. The €9 million project is co-financed by the World Bank, the European Commission and other foreign donors and the Government of Moldova.