ZAGREB, August 22, 2018 – The Health Ministry has said it is intensively working on the absorption of EU funds for projects involving combined emergency wards, day hospitals and outpatient surgeries, that it has been very successful in contracting funding in 2016-18, and that it currently manages 1.5 billion kuna worth of projects contracted as part of the 2014-20 Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion.
The ministry issued a press release on Tuesday in response to media reports on projects to overhaul emergency wards with EU funding.
The ministry said that in July 2016 the Regional Development and EU Funds Ministry invited applications for 173 million kuna to be allocated for those projects in seven hospitals: three clinical hospitals – in Zagreb, Osijek and Split; and four general hospitals – in Varaždin, Dubrovnik, Sisak and Bjelovar.
Five of the seven projects are being implemented – in Zagreb, Varaždin, Dubrovnik, Sisak and Bjelovar, implementation of the Osijek project will start soon, while the Split hospital is expected to apply in 2019.
The ministry said the project documentation is evaluated by the Expert Commission assessing the alignment of EU projects with the health sector’s strategic framework. The lowest grant amount approved is 3.5 million kuna and the highest is 20 million kuna for general hospitals and 31 million kuna for clinical hospitals.
The ministry says all decisions on financial allocations for projects to overhaul emergency wards are made in consultation with the Regional Development and EU Funds Ministry.
