During a year and a half, the Ministry of Health will complete a number of initiated projects, an important element being the construction of another 15 health centers in rural areas, Minister Andrei Usatyi said in an interview for Radio Free Europe, quoted by IPN.

Among the actions that are to be completed, the official mentioned the finishing of the surgical block of the National Clinical Hospital. New services will be provided in this block, including organ transplants and sophisticated operations on the brain. The project is financed by the Governments of Moldova, Austria, Japan and the EBRD and the European Commission through the Neighborhood Investment Facility.

Andrei Usatyi said that over the last three years, the health system attracted investments of over 1.6 billion lei. The money was used to modernize and develop the hospital sector. “Those investments covered practically all the medical institutions of the country, of all levels, including the rural health centers and district hospitals. We intend to design a project for regional hospitals,” stated the minister.

He also said that there will be improved the quality of services in medical institutions of the third level, such as the Oncology Institute, the Mother and Child Center, the Emergency Hospital, and the municipal hospital No. 3. The National Clinical Hospital alone needs investments of €150 million for modernization works. The money will come as grants and concessional loans.

The investments needed in the hospital sector were estimated at €1.2 billion. As to the primary medical assistance sector, Moldova made progress in this area and is a leader among the countries of the region that withdrew from the Soviet Union the same year, said Andrei Usatyi.