Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the General Hospital of Thessaloniki “Georgios Papanikolaou” and saw up close the fully renovated Pulmonary Clinic of the National Health System which had been damaged by a fire that broke out in a ward in April 2022.

“It is my great pleasure in these difficult days for the country, to visit the Papanikolaou Hospital to inspect an important project: the complete renovation of the Pulmonary Clinic which, as you may remember, was destroyed by a fire in 2022. A project which was completed within a few months.

I want to congratulate the hospital, their technical services, but also all the staff of TAIPED who mobilized resources of the Recovery Fund, I repeat, resources of the Recovery Fund, so that from tomorrow the hospitalized patients have access to the best possible health services, a state-of-the-art floor which was completed in record time.

It is an image from the future, but a future which we hope will soon become present, for how we perceive the investments we will make in the infrastructure of the National Health System.

Only here, at the “Papanicolaou” Hospital, more than 17,000,000 will be allocated, a significant portion of which will be directed to the creation of a new building for gene and cell therapies. The future, that is, of medicine and I think that in a hospital with the history of “Papanicolaou”, in seven years it will turn 100 years of life, it really deserves to be at the forefront of innovation and medical science.

But, of course, this is only a small part of the overall projects that are being launched in the health sector: from the major restructuring of EKAB, which we have already presented to the Council of Ministers, to interventions in emergency departments and health centers in the whole country.

Combined, obviously, with the addition of new executives, new employees through 10,000 new hires. Our commitment to a new modern health system, one of the best National Health Systems in Europe is implemented step by step, under the guidance of the Minister and the leadership of the Ministry.

We are still at the beginning and we will run even faster, so that all Greek citizens have access to the quality health services they deserve”, noted the Prime Minister.

“We will continue day by day to modernize the hospitals, humanize them, make them more attractive and finally have a National Health System that the Greek people deserve”, underlined the Minister of Health Michalis Chrysochoidis.

“I think that together with the planning that has been done by the Ministry for the implementation of projects in our Hospital, in the “Papanikolou” Hospital, we will exceed 17.5 million euros together with the specific project, the expansion of the gene therapy building and a set of from other projects. Thank you for the support for this whole project”, pointed out the Governor of the Hospital, Dionysis Manolopoulos.

The renovation of the Pulmonology Clinic, on the second floor of the hospital, with a total area of ​​1,000 sq.m. completed a few days ago. The now renovated ward has 34 beds, four of which are Intensive Care Units, while the project was financed exclusively by the Recovery Fund. The presentation of the project was carried out by the Authorized consultant of TAIPED, Panagiotis Stamboulidis.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke with the medical, nursing and administrative staff of the hospital’s new Pulmonology Clinic, who from next week will offer their services to patients, and thanked them for their work.

The Prime Minister was accompanied during his visit by the Minister of Health Michalis Chrysochoidis, the Deputy Minister of Health Marios Themistokleous, the Governor of the 3rd General Hospital Panagiotis Boyatzidis and the Governor of the Hospital Dionysis Manolopoulos.