October the 22nd, 2024 – The largest Croatian healthcare project in the country’s independent history is unfortunately being called into question. What is throwing a spanner in the works for Srebrnjak?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the topic at hand is by far the largest Croatian healthcare project in terms of infrastructure, for which the funds come from the EU. If you’re at all familiar with the subject, you’ll likely know that we’re referring to the construction of a modern hospital spanning almost 15,000 square metres. It has been claimed previously that it will all take 32 months. Boro Nogalo, the former director of the Srebrnjak Children’s Hospital, pointed out back in July this year.
Despite those bold claims, the signed contract for this huge Croatian healthcare project has remained nothing more than mere letters scribbled on a bit of paper. The all-singing, all-dancing hospital still isn’t even in sight. Although the contract for the Children’s Centre for Translational Medicine of the Srebrnjak Hospital was signed more than six years ago, the works are at a standstill, the construction site is empty and everything points to the failure of this enormous project worth a staggering 60 million euros.
That’s not all, either. Owing to the fact that this Croatian healthcare project is still not completed, the City of Zagreb is being threatened with needing to return this sum of money to the European Union. The mayor is calling out the former government. In 23 months, he claims, they allegedly spent a mere 0.01 percent of those funds.
“That Croatian healthcare project still has a chance to be realised. If not, then the current costs are what has been done so far, which totals only one million euros. Despite that small sum, the amount we’d need to return in that case would be 60 million euros. This means that the key thing is whether or not the project can be implemented in a different perspective, because unfortunately the previous government did nothing, time was lost,” Mayor Tomašević said a few days ago.
The Srebrnjak Children’s Hospital submitted a request for project phasing, in order to ensure the continuation of implementation in the new programme period of EU funds until 2027. While Zagreb’s mayor sits waiting for a response from the Ministry of Science and Education, that same ministry spoke to HRT, saying the following:
“We requested the refinement of the proposal, and the final documentation has still not been submitted and approved by the owner – the City of Zagreb, due to new circumstances due to large increases in construction prices. This is accompanied by the need to prepare a redesign of the entire project so that it could possibly be proposed again for financing. The hospital is allegedly continuing to work on the preparation of documentation, but it remains uncertain whether they’ll be able to secure the necessary funds and complete the project according to the original vision,” reads the ministry’s rather vague response.
Exasperated, dismissed, and now retired former director and project manager Boro Nogalo said:
We were stripped of any powers, and what happened was that a year ago we were forbidden to meet before the decision on phasing. The project is alive and kicking, and unwell children deserve to see it realised. I’d just like to encourage the Croatian Government, the City of Zagreb and the hospital to actually finally start doing something,” concluded Nogalo.
