The Department of Addictology of the General Hospital in Prague is awaiting reconstruction for 220 million crowns
The whole reconstruction will cost at least 220 million crowns, it should start in two years. The farthest is the preparation of the attic, the hospital has announced a tender for a designer. “We plan to start the construction itself in 2024. We still have a study on the completion of addictology. We will only announce the selection procedure for the designer, “said Martina Voráčková from the hospital’s press department.
A new hospital for adults will be created in the attic of the building. In hospitals, patients usually stay a few hours on weekdays a day, the rest of the time they are at home. It is a transitional method between hospitalization and outpatient treatment.
The amendments also strengthen the care of children and adolescent patients. “Children and adolescents, who are now in the psychiatry clinic due to insufficient capacity, will move to addictology. This will create a children’s detoxification center for the acute treatment of children and adolescents addicted to psychotropic substances, ” she stated hospital on facebook.
The hospital is located in a large area near Charles Square, it has other premises elsewhere for Prague. The Department of Psychiatry, where there are currently pediatric patients, is located in Ke Karlovu Street, in the so-called Catherine’s Garden around St. Catherine’s Church, which is the easternmost edge of the hospital complex. The building of the maternity hospital near Apolinář is also nearby. The Addictology Clinic is located between the Botanical Garden of Charles University and the campus of universities in Albertov.
Addiction treatment costs the public health insurance system more than billions of crowns every year. Only the General Health Insurance Company (VZP), which cares for 60 percent of the population, paid for more than 40,000 people. There were about 1,300 children and adolescents among them, more than half of whom were treated for alcohol dependence. Hundreds of children need the help of doctors who are also addicted to illegal drugs.