Minister Bačić visiting reconstruction sites in Zagreb – reconstruction of Clinical Hospital Centre (KBC) Zagreb fully completed by 2027

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Branko Bačić, together with Minister of Health Irena Hrstić, State Secretaries Dunja Magaš, Sanja Bošnjak and Tonči Glavinić and World Bank project manager Krunoslav Šimatović, visited the reconstruction works at the largest Croatian hospital KBC Zagreb, carried out in stages.

“This space undergoes reconstruction financed from four different sources - we started with the European Union Solidarity Fund, and the projects which hadn’t been completed by the end of June 2023 were further financed from the state budget. The third source is the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and the fourth is the World Bank loan, which will be repaid from the state budget at more favourable interest rates,” Minister Bačić said.

Accompanied by Minister of Health Irena Hrstić, Special Advisor to the Government Zvonimir Savić and Director of KBC Zagreb Fran Borovečki, Minister Bačić first visited the reconstruction site of the Clinic for Pulmonary Diseases of KBC Zagreb at Jordanovac 104. The project is worth 27.1 million euro and it is financed from the European Union Solidarity Fund and the National Recovery and Resilience Fund.

The reconstruction works are carried out in two stages in order to keep part of the facility operational during reconstruction. The first stage was completed on November 22, 2024, when this part was put in operation, while the second stage is planned to be completed at the end of the year. The gross building area of the facility is 10,054 square metres.

Historic reconstruction of public use buildings and healthcare system buildings

The visit continued at Kišpatićeva Street on an active post-earthquake reconstruction site of the main building of KBC Zagreb. The project is worth 105 million euro - 32.2 million has been contracted from the EUSF and 71.8 million euro from the NRRP.

“Today we see the works progress at an excellent pace. The second reconstruction stage of the main building should be completed by November, and the building will be occupied shortly after. In total, it is a large investment, and we are grateful to the Government of the Republic of Croatia and competent ministries,” Director Borovečki said.

The gross building area of the facility is 31,490 square metres. The reconstruction works are divided into three stages - the first one, the southwestern part of the building, was completed and put in operation on November 19, 2024. The southeastern part, the largest one, is now active, with the completion expected in December. The northern part of the building will undergo reconstruction upon commissioning other parts of the facility, at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year.

“This is a historic reconstruction of public use buildings, especially within the healthcare system - here, at Rebro, 350 million euro has been invested through reconstruction and construction stages,” Minister Bačić said.

The visit continued towards the yellow building of KBC Zagreb, also at Kišpatićeva 12. The facility has been reconstructed and is completely functional. For this part of the project, encompassing 3,042 square metres, 10.6 million euro has been contracted - 3.49 million euro from the EUSF and 7.06 million euro from the NRRP.

The largest healthcare project - KBC Rebro stage III worth 175.2 million euro

The visit ended at the construction site of the third reconstruction and construction site of KBC Zagreb, under the Earthquake Recovery and Public Health Preparedness Project, financed from the World Bank loan and the state budget. The total value of the project is 175.2 million euro, VAT included.

The building in question is a completely new six-storey hospital building spanning 35,894 square metres and with a capacity of 197 hospital beds. The project also includes the construction of a garage, which will cover 31,406 square metres with 1,045 parking spaces for visitors and employees and include a helipad for emergencies, patient transfer and transplant programme. Access roads will also be reconstructed and constructed, and the heating station will be reconstructed.

“We do not invest only in infrastructure, but also in medical equipment. The Government has recently adopted the decision on acquiring medical equipment worth 20 million euro. I express my gratitude to the Minister and the Government for enabling the third construction stage of Rebro with this last financial injection of 175 million euro so the hospital is complete and worthy of its employees and patients,” Minister Hrstić said.

Minister Bačić pointed out that Rebro will be a completely new, structurally fortified hospital with the highest level of development, providing high-quality healthcare services.

“Rebro - Stage III is currently the largest investment in the Croatian healthcare system, and the end of 2027 is contracted as the planned deadline to complete the entire project,” Minister Bačić concluded.

Reconstruction of other hospitals as well

The reporters asked Minister Hrstić how the reconstruction of the largest Croatian hospital affects the patients and whether the waiting lists have increased or any healthcare services have been denied. She responded that it is fascinating that Rebro has marked higher figures both in the number of patients and services provided despite the difficulties caused by the reconstruction works.

She added that one of the reasons is the system of day hospitals providing healthcare services within a single day’s hospital stay.

The Minister also mentioned the reconstruction of other hospitals, stating that Merkur and Petrova hospitals have been opened, Fran Mihaljević is in the final stage and Vinogradska should be completed by the end of next year.

Then there are KBC Split and KBC Osijek, which is in the final stage of project documentation, and the General Hospital Šibenik as the next project in the near future.

Reconstruction of residential property also progressing at the desired pace

Prior to visiting KBC Zagreb, Minister Bačić also visited two families who had received replacement family houses in Trnje following the damage to their homes caused by the earthquake and one construction site of a replacement family house in Maksimir.
By now, 14,000 reconstruction projects have been completed at 14,000 locations encompassing nearly 53,000 housing units, the Minister said.

With regard to the Zagreb earthquake, he pointed out, 38,000 housing units have been reconstructed at 4,100 locations. A total of 40 replacement family houses has been constructed, 27 are under construction and 27 are in the preparatory stage.

“The construction of replacement family houses is particularly important to our fellow citizens - by the sixth anniversary, all replacement houses will either be completed or in one of the construction stages. Overall, we have invested more than 4.04 billion euro for the Zagreb and Petrinja earthquake areas, with 2.35 billion referring to the Zagreb area,” Minister Bačić pointed out.

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