A new building will be built on the premises of the AGEL Handlová Hospital. It will be a low-capacity modern facility for the elderly of community type, which will create a new social residential service for people in need of help for the inhabitants of the region. St. Catherine’s Senior Centre, which is the submitter of the project plan for the expansion of community care capacities, will finance the construction of the new building from its own resources in addition to EU funds.

St. Catherine’s Senior Centre, which operates at the AGEL Handlová Hospital, has become a successful bidder for a project aimed at expanding the capacity of community social care. “For the implementation of the project, the aim of which is to build a low-capacity modern facility for the elderly of community type, we have received EUR 1 337 628 from the renewal plan, while the eligible expenditure for the implementation of the project, including own resources, is EUR 2 453 693.27. Until now, the Senior Centre of St. Catherine has been providing social services for the elderly in a part of the AGEL Handlová Hospital building. However, since it is not prospective to expand these services directly in the hospital building, we decided to use the space in the hospital premises and build a new modern facility for people who have reached retirement age and are dependent on the help of another natural person,” explained the director of the Senior Centre of St. Catherine Ing. Marta Eckhardtová, MPH. The construction of the new facility should start in the next few weeks and its capacity will be 12 persons. The structure of the building will take into account the needs of people in need of care, with an emphasis on full accessibility of the premises.

“The proposed building is single storey, consisting of two residential units, each with a capacity of 6 persons. The dwelling unit has a separate entrance and is as similar as possible to a normal household, with the width of the corridors and hallways designed to provide seamless handling of wheelchairs and compensatory aids, as well as collision-free movement for people with visual impairments. The corridor will provide access to the beneficiaries’ bedrooms as well as the living room and kitchen. The housing unit is also equipped with a multi-function room, laundry room, cleaning room and wardrobe. The living room is connected to the kitchen and has direct access to a covered summer terrace,” described the structure of the planned building Ing. Eckhardt. The construction of the new facility will expand the possibilities of social residential services for the inhabitants of the region.

“We aim to provide social services in such a way as to strengthen the independent life of social service recipients and to create conditions in which they feel comfort, respect and acceptance. We are confident that the expansion of capacity, which will be possible thanks to the new building, will go smoothly thanks to the experienced and stable team that we have managed to create at St. Catherine’s Senior Centre and on whose expertise we can rely.” added the director of the Senior Centre. According to the planned schedule, construction work should start this month and the project activities should be finalized in April 2026.