Ljubljana, 28 May 2021 – Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has approved EU funding for the Call for proposals for co-financing investment into infrastructure to strengthen resilience of institutional care facilities by taking into account the deinstitutionalisation efforts. The EUR 93 million project will be fully funded by the European Regional Development Fund and implemented by the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. This is already the fourth major investment supported by the REACT-EU under the massive NextGenerationEU instrument which facilitates post-Covid-19 recovery in Member States.
The call for proposals seeks to support investment projects that aim to ensure safe and user-friendly residential facilities and environment for users of social services, tackle major burning issues, bridge bed capacity gaps, ensure meeting the relevant quality standards in social care institutions and support the process of transition from institutional to community-based care or deinstitutionalisation. The call consists of two lots; the first one involves adaptation of existing long-term care infrastructure whereas the second one includes new construction of residential long-term facilities/nursing homes (replacement construction). The projects contributing to at least one of the objectives of the call for proposals, i.e. improving the quality of living in long-term care facilities by eliminating three- or more bed ward rooms, putting in place infection prevention and infection control management measures by physically separating clean pathways and ‘’contaminated’’ or high risk pathways, i.e. establishing so-called grey and red zones and allocating dedicated staff to zones) will receive support. Additionally, lot 2 will also finance the provision of extra 300 beds in residential long-term care facilities/nursing homes, and a further 900 beds in the coming two years. EU funding is therefore helping us deliver on our promise: 1,200 new resident beds in nursing homes by 2023.
The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities will publish the call for proposals today, 28 May 2021.
This is already the fourth investment in a series of REACT-EU investments in the past few months. In February 2021, the European Regional Development Fund supported the project Covid-19 – Relocation of the Department for Pulmonary Diseases to the University Medical Centre Maribor with a contribution of EUR 3.6 million; in March, there was a further EUR 4.5 million injection for the project Covid-19 - Hospital renovation to extend capacities of Ljubljana Intermediate Care Department, and in May, EUR 1.5 million were approved for the project Covid-19 – IT supported vaccination appointment scheduling system for primary-level facilities.