Infectious disease wing to be built at Lithuania's Kaunas Clinics by 2025

KAUNAS - A new infectious diseases wing will be built at Kaunas Clinics by 2025, Lithuania's Health Ministry said on Friday.

The new wing will be a unique hospital where patients with very serious complicated conditions that cannot be treated routinely, as well as those suffering from rare infectious diseases, will be isolated and treated.

"This hospital will have emergency, intensive care and infectious disease wards for adults and children, as well as separate operating theaters, diagnostic equipment and microbiological and virus labs exclusively dedicated to the examination and treatment of patients in this wing," Kestutis Stasaitis, director of medicine and nursing at Kaunas Clinics, was quoted as saying in the statement. "This way, the flow of patients with infectious diseases will not be mixed with other patients at Kaunas Clinics, and this allows us to minimize the risk of spreading infections within the hospital."

According to the Health Ministry, the decision was made after taking into account the weaknesses of the Lithuanian and European healthcare system exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and amid the prediction that epidemics of such or even more dangerous viruses may recur.

The projects will be funded under the Economic Recovery and Resilience Facility (the Next Generation Lithuania Plan). The construction expected to start this year and completed by 2025.