Children who need difficult surgeries are now operated abroad because the Moldovan hospitals do not have the necessary equipment. After the opening of the new surgery block of the National Clinical Hospital, a large number of such operations will be performed in the country, said the director of the Mother and Child Health Scientific Research Institute Stefan Gatcan. Stefan Gatcan has told Info-Prim Neo that the patients are currently directed to foreign hospitals with the Health Ministry’s accord, at the suggestion of the competent doctors. These patients are mostly children who need surgeries for oncological or heart diseases, or diseases of the locomotor system. Of the total number of children who need complicated surgeries, 15% are newborns. “The operations performed abroad are partly covered with money from the states budget, through the agency of the Health Ministry. The other part is covered from donations. In most of the cases, such surgeries are 90% covered from the state budget,” stated Stefan Gatcan. According to the Health Ministry, the new surgical block will have 16 surgery rooms and 72 intensive care beds. There will be performed complicated surgeries, some of which for the first time in Moldova like those on hearts of newborns. The contract for starting the construction works was signed a year ago. The cost of the works is €12 million. The new block is to be erected during 20 months of the signing of the contract. It will provide services of the highest quality.