The Ministry of Health (MZ) will allocate almost PLN 300 million for investments in regional blood donation and haemotherapy centres (RCKiK). Thanks to the money from the European funds, new buildings will be built, or old ones renovated, and the RCKiK will have state-of-the-art medical equipment and ambulances for blood collection.

The purchase of real estate, construction of facilities from scratch, construction of cold stores, reconstruction and renovation of existing buildings, purchase of medical equipment: e.g. centrifuges, weighing machines for blood collection, incubators with mixers, blood preparation presses, as well as the purchase of ambulances for blood collection, vehicles for transporting blood and its components are the investments carried out under the project to support entities operating in public blood service under the REACT-EU initiative.

Soon, the centres will make investments of almost PLN 392 million, with support from REACT-EU amounting to as much as PLN 299.4 million.

“While improving quality in the health care system, we must not forget about blood donation. The COVID-19 epidemic has clearly shown us how important blood is for our life and health, and how important it is that it continues to “flow” to our hospitals. Uninterrupted operation of regional blood centres and raising the level of service for blood donors is one of the priorities of our activities”, says Deputy Minister Marcin Martyniak, responsible in the Ministry of Health for investments.

As part of the project to support entities operating in the area of public blood services, the largest support will be provided to RCKiK Lublin and RCKiK Warsaw. The value of the Lublin application is PLN 86.5 million, of which EU support is PLN 52.5 million. These sums will enable the purchase of real estate and the construction of new premises for RCKK together with a professional freezing facility.

The value of RCKK Warsaw’s investment is PLN 76.6 million, with REACT EU support amounting to as much as PLN 62.8 million. Funding will also be used to build new premises for the RCKKI field offices in Garwolin and Siedlce.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński