A meeting was held at noon at the Maximos Mansion, chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, focusing on the donation that the Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulos Foundation has decided to make for the expansion and renovation of KAT Hospital facilities.

During the session, officials reviewed the prioritization of projects in order to focus first on the most critical interventions and to minimize the burden on the hospital’s operation, which is on duty daily throughout the year.

The main project will be the construction of a new building to house operating rooms, given that approximately 16,000 surgeries are performed annually at KAT, about 40% of them emergency cases, while an average of 25,000 patients are hospitalized each year—making it the most important trauma and orthopedic center in the Balkans.

“It is a very important day for the National Health System and especially for KAT, the largest trauma and orthopedic hospital in the Balkans, as the Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulos Foundation has made a very significant decision in principle: to financially support the full modernization of the hospital with major interventions, such as the creation of a new building that will house state-of-the-art operating rooms needed for complex orthopedic cases, as well as the complete renovation of the existing hospital,” the Prime Minister said during the meeting.

From the Foundation’s side, its president, Nellos Kanellopoulos, noted: “In this major effort to upgrade the National Health System—which the government has set as a priority—we also consider it a joy and an honor to support this effort.”

The new facilities will be designed according to the highest standards for orthopedic cases, including properly separated clean and contaminated zones. The construction of a new building will ensure uninterrupted hospital operations and will allow the existing operating theaters on the second floor of the main building—now heavily worn after many years of use and high patient volume—to be better utilized.

The donation will also be used for substantial renovations of KAT medical units, including general surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, internal medicine, orthopedics, thoracic surgery, and plastic surgery clinics, as well as for replacing hundreds of patient beds. Planned interventions also include landscaping and redesign of the hospital’s garden.

The Foundation’s donation—resulting from months of cooperation with the Ministry of Health—follows upgrades carried out at KAT over the past six years. These include strengthening the ICU (now with 51 beds, the second-largest capacity in the public health system), modernization and renovation of the Emergency Department (which receives an average of 89,000 people annually), installation of a patient tracking system in the ER, and full renovation of the rehabilitation center.

At the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister emphasized: “A very large intervention worth tens of millions of euros will begin to move forward immediately after the donation agreement is ratified by the Greek Parliament. On behalf of the government—and all those who have used or may use this hospital’s services—a very big thank you.”

Nellos Kanellopoulos added: “The joy and honor are entirely ours. We believe it is our duty to support this major effort to upgrade the National Health System and stand by your side so we can meet this challenge.”

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis also stressed his deep gratitude to the Foundation for its initiative, noting that although the state has already invested significant public resources in KAT, these alone are not sufficient. He said the Foundation’s decision to effectively “adopt” the hospital and ensure high-level health services for decades to come is extremely important, and pledged the Ministry’s full support to implement the projects quickly and properly for the benefit of Greek patients.