The work on the new building of the Clinic for Children’s Diseases of the SKB Mostar has come to an end, and what remains is the furnishing of the rooms and the decoration of the ground floor and the entrance.
According to the director of SKB Mostar, Ante Kvesić, if the funds from the federal and cantonal levels were transferred on time, they could have moved into the new building three months ago.
Namely, the Government of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNK) previously made a decision on credit debt in the amount of 13 million marks to finance the project of construction, renovation and equipping of three hospitals in the HNK, and 7 million of that amount is intended for equipping and completing the construction of the Clinic for children’s diseases.
“Eight, nine months ago, the Government of FBiH granted us seven million marks for the completion of construction works due to the corona virus and the increase in prices on world markets, and that is exactly what closed the whole story. If these funds, along with those from the loan from the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of 7 million marks for the equipment of this clinic, had been transferred on time, we would have moved to a new building three months ago,” emphasized Kvesić.
Unfortunately, as he adds, for some strange reasons, that story is still in the drawer of both institutions.
“So, the Federal government still hasn’t transferred 7 million BAM to us, they are waiting for a rebalance, and the cantonal government has also not been formed yet, and they are also waiting for a rebalance. We prepared the tender for equipment and furniture a long time ago and now we have announced it, hoping that in the next month the rebalancing will be adopted and that we will have that money at our disposal, both from the federal and from the cantonal level. If those two things finally happen, this year we will be inside the new pediatrics,” asserted Kvesić.
The new building of pediatrics has five floors: basement, ground floor and three floors. The basement contains technical areas, a cleaning service, a cloakroom, and a meeting hall, while the ground floor will house the reception of patients, the contents of specialist consular services, and a day hospital.
The inpatient facilities of pediatrics will be located on the first and second floors, pediatric surgery is also on the second floor, while the inpatient facilities of the neonatology department and the intensive care unit are located on the third floor.
“It is about ten thousand square meters of a new modern building that looks beautiful. Inside it are 95 rooms, each of which has a child’s bed, a bed for the mother and a bathroom. So, they are all single rooms, and in some extreme, extraordinary conditions, we can turn them into two or three-bed rooms. There is also modern intensive care. It really looks good and I am really proud of what we have done,” says the director of SKB Mostar.
So far, about 20 million marks have been spent on the construction, and when the funds to be paid by the Federal and Government of HNK for the equipment of the clinic are included, the value of this project will be about 34 million marks.
Speaking about the importance of the new building for Mostar and Herzegovina, Kvesić points out that the current pediatrics is 70 years old and quite inadequate, and that one of the daily problems is the lack of space, especially if they have to keep the mother with the child.
He emphasizes that with the new building of pediatrics, Mostar is getting a children’s hospital that does not exist on the Old Continent.
“The current pediatrics works on 1,500 square meters, and the new one has 10,000. I visited a lot of children’s hospitals, there are no such hospitals in Europe,” said Kvesić, Fena reports.
