The ICRC building in Brno will be delayed by two years due to changes

Brno - The construction of the International Center for Clinical Research and Development (ICRC) at the St. Anne's Faculty Hospital in Brno will be delayed by two years due to changes in planning. Compared to the concept approved by the government in 2006, a part of the St. Anne's Hospital will also be renovated simultaneously, which will increase the investments from the state budget by 650 million to two billion crowns. CTK learned this from the conclusions of the NKÚ. The construction of the ICRC, costing 2.9 billion crowns, was supposed to start this year, but according to the new concept, it will be completed in September 2012.
"The preparation of the area for the construction of the center started and was carried out at a time when a fundamental change in the construction concept had already been decided, and there is a realistic assumption that the prepared area will not meet the needs of the ICRC construction according to the new parameters. After the changes in binding parameters, the financial resources were increased by more than 654 million crowns," said the president of the NKÚ, František Dohnal.
The construction of the modern research and treatment center will cost 2.9 billion crowns. The price also includes partial renovations of the St. Anne's Hospital. Its layout is outdated today, with clinics, outpatient departments, and wards operating in many buildings scattered across the area, causing healthcare workers to often have to transport patients outside. The renovation aims to solve this problem.
Around 845 million crowns of the total investment comes from the hospital's own resources and suppliers' loans. The remaining part will be covered by the state, and this amount will increase by approximately 650 million to nearly two billion crowns due to the changes in the project, according to the NKÚ. The completion date has been postponed by two years to September 2012 in the new concept.
At the ICRC, doctors will develop new treatment methods for the most common diseases, such as heart attacks. They will collaborate on research tasks with experts from the prestigious Mayo Clinic in the USA. The clinic is one of the largest university hospitals in the USA and is often considered the most prestigious medical institution in the world. Thanks to the research directly in Brno, innovations in treatment are expected to reach Czech patients sooner.