Opening ceremony at the new campus and the 77th anniversary of the founding of the faculty

Academics, guests from the ranks of politicians and public administration, representatives of construction contractors and other guests gathered on Tuesday, November 8, at a festive gathering in the new faculty building to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the faculty and to symbolically launch the operation of the completed University Medical Centre. Its construction began in 2012, with the first phase completed in 2014. Now all theoretical medical teaching has moved to the modern campus in Lochotín.

At the invitation of the Dean of the LFP, Prof. Jindřich Fink, the guests of the opening ceremony were the Minister of Health of the Czech Republic, Prof. Vlastimil Válek, the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, Mgr. Martin Baxa, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education for the Management of the International Relations, EU and ESIF Section, PhDr. Václav Velčovský, Governor of the Pilsen Region Rudolf Špoták, Rector of Charles University prof. Milena Králíčková, Rector of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen doc. Miroslav Holeček, Bishop of Pilsen Mons. Tomáš Holub and other guests. Also present were representatives of the architects and designers of the building, as well as its contractors, among them Ing. Lubor Hoďánek, member of the Board of Directors of VPÚ DECO PRAHA a.s., and Ing. Jaromír Uhýrek, Chairman of the Board of Directors of GEMO a.s.

"The Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň is a dynamically developing faculty, which has come a long way in the past 10 years, full of great results - not only with the construction of the new campus, but also with many internationally visible achievements in the field of scientific work, which improve the quality of care for patients," evaluated the development of the faculty by the Rector of Charles University, Prof. Králíčková. "The new premises and other modern equipment, including simulators, will certainly contribute to the fact that interest in the study of medicine in Pilsen will continue to be intense."

"When I took over the management of the faculty, I was faced with the unresolved knot of a decision whether to start the second stage of the construction at all, with the threat of lack of funds and the possibility of stopping the construction during its progress, or to give up - perhaps forever - the vision of the completed University Medical Centre in Pilsen," says the dean of the faculty, Prof. Jindřich Fínek, describing the circumstances of the creation of the campus. "The decision was made by the courage to take a reasonable degree of risk, both in the management of our faculty and in the management of Charles University at the time. And so, finally, in the hot months of this summer, after overcoming many pitfalls associated with the construction, we were able to give the order to move. After 77 years of the faculty's existence, we are all together. The first appreciation of our hard work after the unveiling of the photographs of the new interiors was the sincere words of envy from the upperclassmen who felt sorry that they would no longer be able to enjoy these new spaces."

The new seven-storey building with a usable area of 30,000 m2 houses 9 teaching institutes and other faculty departments including related infrastructure. The professional library has received modern technology in its equipment, students have collective and individual study rooms, a rest room, changing rooms, and a wheelhouse. The lecture halls and seminar rooms also offer teachers and students advanced technology for teaching. The building has a cafeteria and cafeteria, and when the weather is nice, you can go out on the terraces or the residence roof, and there is a two-story garage in the basement. The administrative and technical departments of the faculty have also received new facilities. A specific part of the faculty is its Simulation Centre, where students practice real interventions on mannequins - simulators, ranging from simulators of basic skills for training cardiopulmonary resuscitation (indirect cardiac massage and artificial respiration) and similar simpler actions to advanced simulators of intensive and emergency medicine.

In the first phase of the construction of the University Medical Centre, the headquarters for five theoretical institutes and the Biomedical Research Centre were built by 2014. The total investment in buildings and equipment here amounted to 462 million CZK. In 2015-16, the first phase was completed with the construction of a 200-seat lecture hall. This part including the adjacent cafeteria cost 54 million CZK. The second phase, just completed, required a cost of CZK 1.84 billion, of which about CZK 309 million was spent. CZK 1.03 billion came from the Ministry of Education and Science's subsidy under the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education. The project was called "Completion of educational infrastructure - UniMeC, 2nd stage" (reg. no. CZ.02.2.67/0.0/0.0/16_016/0002512). The project was co-financed by the European Union, with 85%.