The opening of the new mental health clinic was first announced for January, and then for April this year, but the work is still not finished. The new clinic, as reported unofficially to "Vijesta", could receive its first patients in the next two to three months.
The Clinical Center of Montenegro (KCCG) told "Vijesta" that issues related to the completion of works at the psychiatric clinic and the clinic for infectious diseases and dermatovenerology are not within their competence, but with the Directorate for Capital Projects. However, during the past eight days, the Administration did not answer at what stage the construction of these clinics is and when they can be expected to open.
The construction of the KCCG mental health clinic began at the end of July 2022, and then it was announced that the contracted completion date was 18 months.
According to the project, the future facility will have a basement, ground floor and two floors, and the new clinic will have 20 rooms with 57 patient beds and all the necessary facilities for modern treatment of patients with mental problems. Within the clinic, there will also be a department for child and adolescent psychiatry, where there will be conditions for hospital treatment of children.
The contracted value of the works at the mental health clinic is 7,25 million euros including value added tax (VAT), while the expert supervision cost about 63.900 euros.
The new clinic is being built next to the Institute of Oncology, and will be named after Dr Dušan Kosović, the founder of psychiatry in Montenegro, who more than 60 years ago founded a department of psychiatry with 25 hospital beds.
In July of last year, the 43rd Government, visiting the works at this clinic, said that the facility will be fully completed at the end of January this year, while the former administration of KCCG said two and a half months ago that the opening is expected at the end of April.
Director of the Clinic for Psychiatry Aleksandra Raznatović she previously clarified that in the future clinic, each department will be a separate entity.
"We will have a department for psychotic disorders, a department for affective and borderline states, and a department for addiction diseases. There will also be a new day hospital, which implies so-called partial hospitalization where the patient will spend the time from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon, when he will go home, for the category of patients who do not need to spend 24 hours in the hospital. Of course, we will also have a polyclinic part, an outpatient clinic, where we will create the first center for psychotherapy within the KCCG," said Ražnatović.
The psychiatric clinic currently has 13 specialists in psychiatry, while three doctors are undergoing specialization that they will complete in the next year or two, as well as three specialists in child and adolescent psychiatry and two doctors who are currently undergoing specialization in that branch of medicine.
The foundation stone for the construction of clinics for infectious diseases and dermatovenerology was laid in October 2022, and this project, worth 8,5 million euros, is fully financed from the IPA funds of the European Union (EU).
It was previously announced from KCCG that the Clinic for Dematovenerology was moved out after the weather disasters of a decade ago and has been sharing space with the Clinic for Eye Diseases since then. From this institution, they said that the current clinic has only two rooms with eight hospital beds, while the new building, in addition to the necessary clinics and other facilities, will have 32 beds.
On the other hand, the capacities of the current Clinic for Infectious Diseases are 13 rooms and 20 beds, while in the new building there will be room for 55 patients undergoing hospital treatment. And the new clinic for infectious diseases and dermatovenerology will have a basement, a ground floor and two upper floors, with a total area of over 5.500 square meters.
During a tour of the works at this clinic, seven months ago, it was estimated that the works will be finished in the summer of 2024. However, in February of this year, it was announced that the works should be completed in October.
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