Klaipėda Municipality is preparing to establish a new Palliative Care Day Center for children. Such a center is planned to be established on J. Karos Street, near the Children’s Hospital, adapting the former building of the consultation polyclinic. The children’s home, which has provided palliative care until now, will continue to operate. Rehabilitation for children with developmental disabilities, social care and many other important services will continue to be provided here.
Will build a new center
The establishment of a palliative care center near the hospital will open opportunities for inpatient doctors of the necessary specializations to work in a team, to provide emergency medical assistance in critical cases.
At that time, more space will open up for the development of other services needed by children in Klaipėda’s home for children with impaired development, where some palliative care services are currently provided.
The opportunity to establish a new palliative care day center for children arose after the Ministry of Health provided funding from EU funds.
What surprised me the most was the politicization of this issue. I would consider that to be the ultimate cynicism.
According to the established conditions, a palliative care center in Klaipėda county can be established only in the city of Klaipėda, with the allocation of 652 thousand. EUR of EU funds.
According to the mayor of Klaipėda, Arvydas Vaitkaus, thinking started last year about where and how such a center could be established.
According to the regulations, the project partner can be a health care institution licensed to provide inpatient palliative care personal health care services.
Arvydas Vaitkus. Photo by Vytautas Liaudanskis.
Klaipėda Children’s Hospital, which was chosen as a project partner, has such a license.
The children’s home does not have this license, although expansion was planned here and millions of funds were earmarked for it.
Faced with a dilemma
According to the mayor, when the new city government started working last spring, a rather complicated situation was found regarding the Children’s Home project “Development of services for children with disabilities and their families in the Klaipėda region”.
This project, according to the Children’s Home contract with the Central Project Management Agency (CPVA), was to be implemented from April 23, 2021. until June 30, 2023
However, at the end of April last year, after the new management of the municipality conducted a thorough review of the ongoing progress projects, it became clear that just a couple of months before the official end of the project, public procurement of contract works was still being carried out.
This meant that in order to receive EU funding, not only the procedures had to be completed within a few months, but also all the construction work and the equipment had to be purchased.
It also turned out that the estimated price of the project implementation is almost twice as high as that stipulated in the contract with CPVA.
In the contract with CPVA, the fixed value of the contract is 3.9 million. EUR, of which 3.5 million had to be financed by EU and state budget funds.
However, the calculated price specified in the technical project documentation already amounted to 8.9 million. euros.
During the procurement procedures, it became clear that even at such a price, the contractors would not undertake to implement the project – according to the proposals, the implementation of the project would have cost up to 10.2 million. euros.
The project had to be stopped
This meant that even after receiving EU funding, which was completely unrealistic due to the expiring term of the project, the municipality would still have to find an additional 6.7 million from the city budget. euros.
The project was not carried out by the municipality, but by the institution itself.
This practice was also allegedly not correct, because large infrastructure projects require project administration competences, which the institutions themselves do not have.
“Not only that, that new complex would require a lot of new employees, and maintaining them and the new facilities would cost the city another 600,000 annually. up to 1 million euros. Hence, 10 million for the construction of premises alone. would not be enough, it caused us great concern,” said the mayor.
According to A. Vaitkaus, two months before the end of the project implementation, 3 mln. The use of EU funds was completely impossible.
“We had to stop the whole project and think about what to do next. In February of this year, the Ministry of Health established new norms for the provision of palliative services and the invitation to 10 municipalities to establish day care centers for palliative services for children or adults in those health institutions that have an inpatient license helped us to decide. From 2030, only those institutions that meet the new requirements according to the latest regulations will be able to provide palliative care. Only the Children’s Hospital has the necessary license to establish such a children’s day care center. An inpatient team will always be ready to provide services to children with serious illnesses: an oncologist, pain specialists, and in critical cases, the opportunity to use resuscitation services will always be ensured. In addition, next to the palliative care day center, the other two floors will be equipped with water procedures for children’s rehabilitation, a swimming pool, which is sorely lacking. That is, we will implement two projects in one building, equipping the premises for the swimming pool and other rehabilitation services from the municipal budget. The installation of the palliative care center and the installation of rooms for children’s rehabilitation with water procedures in the Klaipėda Children’s Hospital will cost less than 2 million instead of 10 million. EUR, how much is planned to be invested in Kūdikių namus”, said A. Vaitkus.
The building of the children’s hospital’s former consultation polyclinic on J. Karos street can be easily adapted for palliative care by installing an elevator, reception department, and other facilities.
Cynicism is politics
The mayor hopes that parents raising disabled children will understand the transfer of these services from the Children’s Home in Giruliai to the city center, right next to the Children’s Hospital, where, if necessary, all necessary medical assistance will be provided.
“I was most surprised by the politicization of this issue. I would consider that to be the ultimate cynicism. There should be no politics here. I declare responsibly that there was never any talk about the sale of the premises of the Children’s Home. This is what scares parents the most, at least that’s what I judge from the information I’ve received,” the mayor emphasized.
A. Vaitkus assured: of the 10 services that are now provided at the Children’s Home, after palliative care is transferred to the Children’s Hospital, the remaining nine will continue to be provided at the Children’s Home.
“Whether the institution will survive by providing the remaining services, there should be no doubt, because the demand for the services they provide is enormous. I have discussed this several times with the mayors of the region, with whom we will continue to look for solutions to meet the growing demand for these services. The main building also needs to be renovated, the institution is already calculating estimates for building renovation works. So, there were and will be services for children in Giruliai”, said A. Vaitkus.
The development of services is planned
The mayor said that he visited the Children’s Home a couple of weeks ago, where he met both the staff and the parents of the children who receive services here.
“I assured the managers and the staff that there is no talk of any sale of the premises, dismemberment of the institution and dismissal of employees,” the mayor asserted.
Although palliative care for children will be provided in a center next to the hospital in the future, this does not mean that the Children’s Home is no longer needed by the city.
Other particularly relevant services are provided here – rehabilitation for children with developmental disabilities, social care and many other important services.
Possibilities of transferring or destroying these services are not considered in the municipality, on the contrary, only the development of these services is planned.
As for palliative care, the need for such services is huge not only in the city, but also in the entire region, therefore, in order to improve the situation, Klaipėda municipality is starting to establish a new palliative care center near the hospital.
Tags: Vaitkus politics KaunoDiena .lt
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