Prague, Aug 20 (CTK) – The Czech government agreed yesterday with keeping the special health facility for coping with infections in Techonin, east Bohemia, and it will continue to be administered by the Defence Ministry, Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) said after the cabinet’s meeting yesterday.
“At the time of unpredictable epidemics and the largely increasing migration, the existence of such a facility is completely substantiated,” Stropnicky said.
“Techonin with its unique capabilities and equipment will become an important safeguard against possible crisis situations,” Stropnicky said.
He said the staff of the Biological Protection Centre are capable of uncovering uncommon infectious diseases.
Under the White Defence Book of 2011, the future of Techonin, designed for patients in case of dangerous infectious diseases spread, it was considered to change its legal form to a state-subsidised organisation or its abolition.
The Defence Ministry proposed to the government yesterday that the centre should be preserved and that it should continue to fall under the Military Health Institute.
“The Defence Ministry considers the Biological Protection Centre in Technonin to be, together with the health services providers established by the Health Ministry, particularly the Na Bulovce Hospital in Prague and the State Health Institute, an integral part of the system of the population’s protection, ” the Defence Ministry said.
It said the facility is unique due to its equipment and also its location outside more heavily populated areas.
Stropnicky said the costs of operation of the centre have been decreased from 110 million to 64 million crowns annually.
The centre has 28 beds for seriously ill patients and the number can be raised to 42 if needed. It also has 100 quarantine beds.
It is also used in defence biological research, training and schooling for the needs of the Czech military, NATO and the civilian sphere.
More than 1000 soldiers returning from missions in regions risky from the point of view of epidemics pass through the centre annually.
Some 1.75 billion crowns have been invested in the construction of the complex since 2001, the ministry’s press department said.
($1=24.475 crowns)
