EIB extends €12.8 million loan for a new children’s hospital in Bulgaria

The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a €12.8 million loan agreement with the Municipality of Burgas to co-finance a specialized children’s hospital in the Black Sea city, which will provide high quality health care services to over 220,000 children in south-eastern Bulgaria in modern, zero-emission facilities.

The new hospital will introduce the 21st century model of care in the country, allowing parents to accompany their children in every stage of the admission, creating a friendly, relaxed environment and thus enhancing the beneficial effects of the medical treatment and the adaptation of small patients.

In further support of Bulgaria’s first specialized university children’s hospital, the loan will have a seven-year grace period. This is also the first hospital project that has benefitted from an extensive advisory and technical assistance package provided by EIB Advisory under the European Investment Advisory Hub.

“The project is one of the best examples of how the European Investment Bank works for the benefit of the people and contributes directly to the improvement of living standards,” said EIB Vice President Lilyana Pavlova. “I am very pleased that with our support, the city of Burgas will be able to provide top quality health care services to children in hospital premises that are environmentally friendly”.  

The eight-story building will have 123 beds, with an additional 10 beds in its pediatric intensive care unit. The hospital is expected to employ between 500 and 700 medical and non-medical personnel. The new hospital premises will help attract and retain skilled medical professionals in the region. In addition, it will also be linked to the Medical Faculty of the University in Burgas, facilitating university research and training of medical staff.

Dimitar Nikolov, Mayor of Burgas, said: “The construction of a children’s hospital is important not only for the city of Burgas, but also for the entire South-eastern region. It will offer quality and complex treatment to children with various diseases, without the need to travel to Sofia or abroad”.

A multinational team of EIB and external experts provided the Municipality of Burgas with a comprehensive feasibility study that included functional planning and preliminary designs for the hospital, in line with the best international practices and standards and helped it prepare tender documents for the construction and equipment as well as support in its plans to unlock access to EU grant financing.

The building infrastructure will be energy efficient and environmentally friendly. It will provide for the use of renewable energy sources. The rooftop will be suitable for a solar energy installation. The building will have an energy saving lighting system as well as a draining installation to collect and filter rainwater, which could be reused sustainably for the hospital’s green areas.

“With the help of the experience of foreign experts, provided by the EIB, the bank has supported us in developing this extremely important project. And thanks to the financial resources from the EIB, to which we will have access after signing the contract today, we will have the opportunity to work on the construction as well,” Nikolov said.