Serbia gets new Covid hospital in Batajnica; Brnabic: It opens at the right time

"Compared to most of our hospitals, this hospital is a spaceship," said the prime minister of Serbia

The new Covid hospital in Batajnica, a municipality of Belgrade, built in just four months, is ready to receive the first patients who will be admitted to this health institution starting today after 5 pm. The opening of the hospital this morning was attended by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, Ministers Zlatibor Loncar and Darija Kisic Tepavcevic, the director of Clinical Center of Serbia (KCS) Milika Asanin, and director of the hospital, Tatjana Adzic Vukicevic.

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The hospital has 930 beds, 680 semi-intensive and 250 in intensive care units.

The hospital will have nine large wards with 30 to 40 beds each, and will accept patients exhibiting moderate to severe clinical picture.

It will employ experienced specialists from the Clinical Center of Serbia, best nurses, technicians, physiotherapists, laboratory assistants, as well as young colleagues employed to work there and the institution will have all the necessary, modern equipment.

The construction of the Covid hospital in Batajnica began on August 1 this year and as President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic pointed out at the time, between 27 and 28 million euros were invested in the construction alone, while the overall construction of the hospital, equipment included, cost around 70 million euros.

"We've done something we haven't done in 40 years"

"Today is a great, historic day that will remain inscribed in history as the time when we built not one hospital, which opens today, in four months, but two, because we will soon finish the hospital in Krusevac," Brnabic said before the official opening of the hospital. She added that works on the hospital in Krusevac, which should be opened on December 15 are progressing well.

"We did something we couldn't do in 40 years. Compared to most of our hospitals, this hospital is a spaceship. We're getting it at the moment we need it the most when we have over 800 patients hospitalized on a daily basis," Prime Minister Brnabic said at the opening in Batajnica.

"In August, everything seemed calm and it seemed that we knew everything about coronavirus, that nothing could surprise us, President Aleksandar Vucic said that we must have two additional hospitals and believed that we could do it in four months," Brnabic recalled.

Address by Zlatibor Loncar

"In this hospital alone, 250 patients can be connected to ventilators. What could be more important for a health minister than to open hospitals and help people, to give them a sense of security. Hospitals cannot work without health workers, servers, cleaners, drivers... In the region, and in the rest of Europe we convincingly receive the greatest number of patients for hospital treatment, we have established all protocols so we have the same level of care in all places where patients are treated," said Loncar and added:

"All our healthcare workers will be maximally protected and not react to those who cheer on for coronavirus, we must show that we are stronger than that because we never needed unity more than today."

Covid hospital's director: We will give our maximum

The director of the new Covid hospital, Tatjana Adzic Vukicevic, said that she is at the helm of the best hospital in the region and thanked for the role given to her.

"I could not have imagined that I would encounter an epidemic like this in my career. We have no other country but this one, it is our duty to help our citizens and we will do our best to do that. It will take some time for the whole system to start working, but I will be the first to give my maximum as will all members of my team to defeat this epidemic as soon as possible," she said.

"Hospital needed more than ever"

Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabic spoke on the eve of the opening of this hospital, which she said was coming at the right time, at a time when it was needed more than ever.

"It will help our healthcare, but most importantly it will save lives," she said.

Asked if that means that patients will no longer be sent from Belgrade to other towns, she said that she was the least competent to talk about that, but that what she knows from Minister Loncar that patients from Belgrade will be redirected to this hospital.

"Over 1,600 people will work here and I can say that our healthcare system will emerge from this coronavirus crisis significantly stronger than it was before. We'll emerge from it with two completely new hospitals in Krusevac and in Belgrade, many people will get a chance for a job and a career. We have completely new equipment that we never had before, we have increased salaries of health workers as an extraordinary measure, and I believe that when we defeat this coronavirus we will come out stronger and continue to build because the healthcare system is one of the three priorities of this government," said the prime minister.

According to the director of the hospital, Tatjana Adzic Vukicevic, it employs experienced specialists from the Clinical Center of Serbia, the best nurses, technicians, physiotherapists, laboratory assistants, as well as young colleagues who were employed through a competition, all the necessary devices and most modern resources.

"I have a spaceship behind me. I am impressed by this building and all the capacities that the hospital offers," said Adzic Vukicevic.

She said that the hospital will have nine large wards with 30 to 40 beds each.

(Telegraf.rs)