The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), in collaboration with the Municipalities of Sparta, Pylaia-Chortiatis, and Komotini, organized three open discussions on the creation of three new hospitals. The new SNF General Hospital of Sparta, the SNF University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki, and the new SNF General Hospital of Komotini will be designed, constructed, and fully outfitted through grants from SNF.
The first discussion on the new SNF General Hospital of Sparta with the city’s residents took place on Monday, December 2, 2019. The next day, December 3, the second presentation on Thessaloniki’s new Pediatric Hospital took place. When completed, this will be the first pediatric hospital in Greece outside the prefecture of Attica, which includes Athens. On December 4, the second presentation on progress in the SNF General Hospital of Komotini project was held in the city.
The discussions covered the vision and philosophy behind the design of the three hospitals, undertaken by the internationally renowned architect Renzo Piano and Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), creators of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center(SNFCC). Members of the public asked questions and shared their expectations and enthusiasm for the upgrades to health services in these three regions and Greece broadly.
These three major grants are part of SNF’s broader Health Initiative, whose total budget of more than $450 million is exclusively and fully funded by the Foundation. The Health Initiative comprises construction of new healthcare infrastructure, procurement of specialized medical equipment, and implementation of educational programs, with the goal of strengthening medical and nursing care throughout Greece and, by extension, the health of Greek residents.