The EUR 14.1m emergency ward will be a great improvement in health care for the entire Maribor region, Health Minister Milojka Kolar Celarc said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The emergency centre is organised in a way that allows the best possible treatment of patients and accommodates a number of specialist services in one place, according to emergency ward chief Roman Košir and UKC Maribor boss Gregor Pivec.

The Maribor emergency is the third to be launched in a nation-wide network of emergency centres being upgraded with the help of EU funds. More than a half of the funds for the Maribor centre (EUR 7.6m) came from the European fund for regional development.

While the emergency centres in Brežice and Murska Sobota have already been launched, the centres in Jesenice, Nova Gorica, Celje, Trbovlje, Slovenj Gradec, Izola and Novo mesto will open by the end of the year.

"The constructions are going according to plan and will be completed by mid-December at the latest," said the minister. She added that the network of emergencies along with a new dispatcher network will be fully operational by 1 July 2016.