PM Kobakhidze Halts Central Republican Hospital Demolition Plans Amid Doctor Protests

On February 24, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that the plans to demolish the Central Republican Hospital have been revoked in accordance with the demands of the doctors who have been protesting for a month against the new project of the hospital and its reorganization. Kobakhidze said that in the next few months a new project will be developed to build the new hospital at the back of the current one and privatize the front of the territory to keep it open for investment.

The decision was made after a meeting between the Prime Minister, the leader of the parliamentary majority Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Minister of Health Zurab Azarashvili and the medical staff. Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Kobakhidze said that for the time being the hospital will continue to function as usual and the process of demolition will begin only when the new hospital is built behind the existing one, in about 3 years. Notably, the process of reorganization will also stop.

The staff of the N. Kipshidze Central University Clinic of the Tbilisi State Medical University, one of the largest medical institutions in Georgia and commonly referred to as the Central Republican Hospital, has been protesting at the Ministry of Health against the government’s decision to demolish the hospital and reorganize the medical staff. The protest has been going on for a month, and the protesters were demanding that the government’s decision to demolish the hospital be revoked. Overwhelming majority rejected the hefty compensation plans proposed by the Ministry of Health.

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