Page 146 - Demo

Maritime industryInitiatives of the maritime community for the benefit of Greek societyStavros Niarchos Foundation: Another donation for Greek healthcareOn Wednesday, 22 April, the %u201cAttikon%u201d University General Hospital in Athens held a blessing ceremony for the new building complex being added to its campus through a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), as part of its Global Health Initiative (GHI). During the event, the Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Andreas C. Dracopoulos, delivered a speech, while Adonis Georgiadis, Minister of Health, Gerasimos Siasos, Rector of the University of Athens, Spyridon Apostolopoulos, Director of the %u201cAttikon%u201d University Genral Hospital, and Dr Panagiotis Koulouvaris, Assistant Professor at NKUA, also gave remarks.The new building complex will include accommodation for on-call medical staff, addressing a long-standing structural shortcoming of the hospital, which was built without provision for staff rest facilities, resulting in doctors having to use patient beds during their shifts. The construction of a specialised building will immediately free up already-equipped rooms for inpatient care, thereby enhancing the hospital%u2019s overall capacity to serve patients while also improving working conditions for medical and nursing staff. The building complex will also house a coordination centre for the Mobile Medical Units (MMUs), implemented by Regeneration & Progress in collaboration with AEMY S.A. (Health Units S.A.), under the scientific supervision of the First Orthopaedic Clinic of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), and created at the initiative of, and supported in full by, SNF. It will also house the Centre for Therapeutic Exercise, as well as the SNF Complex Joint Reconstruction Centre.The new buildings are expected to be completed and handed over to the Greek state in 2027. The grant for their construction is part of SNF%u2019s Global Health Initiative (GHI). With a total budget exceeding one billion dollars, the GHI includes more than 100 grants in Greece and abroad, such as the design, construction, and outfitting of three new, state-of-the-art hospitals in Komotini, Thessaloniki, and Sparta, the procurement of critical equipment such as air ambulances for the National Center of Emergency Care (EKAV), mental health initiatives, training programmes for health care providers, and a broad framework of international partnerships to promote innovation and the exchange of expertise and best practices.%u00a0The Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, stated:%u201cI am very happy to be here today. If I start talking about the donations of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to the National Health System, night will fall, and I will surely have forgotten many. It is impossible to easily grasp the scope of the interventions, both in terms of geographic coverage and depth, in every healthcare institution in the country %u2013 from psychiatric facilities, mobile health units, and ICU renovations to almost anything one could imagine. I would truly like to thank Mr Andreas Dracopoulos for his swiftness, effectiveness, and above all, his humanity.The National Health System has several great benefactors, and I thank them all. %u2013 even the smallest donor, for example, the lady from Patras who donated an ambulance to the National Centre of Emergency Care (EKAV) from her own income. Across this entire spectrum of major benefactors, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation is undoubtedly the national champion. The three hospitals we are set to receive within the next 12 months alone will completely change the country%u2019s healthcare map.The project we are inaugurating here today is a very important one. The %u201cAttikon%u201d University General Hospital is one of the flagship institutions of the National Health System. It was originally designed to serve 80,000 people per year, but in reality it serves 200,000. Its needs are therefore substantial. That is why it is now one of the few hospitals where, unfortunately, there are patients still being treated on stretchers.To resolve this issue, the Ministry of Health has implemented an ambitious plan, of which today%u2019s project %u2013 the construction site we are inaugurating %u2013 is a crucial part. First of all, we will build dormitories for doctors and provide our on-call doctors with humane working conditions. Doctors are hardworking 144 NX