NIB funds the expansion of central hospital in Finnish Lapland

NIB and Lapin sairaanhoitopiirin kuntayhtymä (Lapland Hospital District) have agreed on a loan of EUR 69 million, maximum, for the renovation and expansion of the central hospital in Rovaniemi, the provincial centre of Finnish Lapland.

With a maturity of up to 25.5 years, the loan will fund the 30,000 m² extension that almost doubles the hospital’s current premises and includes the building of “hot departments”, psychiatric hospital and parking building. The “hot departments” consist of for example an emergency clinic, operating theatres, a hospital pharmacy and intensive care unit. The construction work will start in 2019 and is scheduled to be completed in 2023.

The expansion will relieve the overcrowding of current spaces, and it will also enable the hospital to fulfil the latest requirements of modern patient care. Among other things, the operating theatres need to be modernised in order to make it possible to utilise the latest surgical techniques. Also, Lapland being a vast but sparsely populated region, almost half of Finland’s helicopter flights transporting a patient are carried out there. The hospital’s current helicopter landing pad is on the ground, which means that at the moment the patient has to be transferred by ambulance from the pad to reach the hospital premises. In the new extension wing, the helicopter field will be on the roof of the hospital’s new multi-storey car park, which will enable the rapid transfer of patients straight to the hospital.

“Modern hospital campuses make smooth and centralised treatment processes possible. This is naturally beneficial for the patient, but besides better health care, it also improves the region’s health outcomes and reduces health care costs”, says Henrik Normann, President and CEO of NIB.

Lapland Central Hospital is Finland’s northernmost broad-based emergency hospital and one of the most important employers in the Rovaniemi region. The hospital is responsible for providing specialised health care services for 118,000 inhabitants in the region’s 15 municipalities. It also engages actively in cross-border cooperation with northern Sweden and northern Norway, especially in pre-hospital emergency care and mental health care. Tourism can be seen in the daily life of the hospital. As the Lapland region has over 2 million visitors a year, a significant number of emergency room patients at the hospital are tourists.

Lapland Hospital District is a joint municipal authority owned by 15 municipalities.

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

For further information, please contact
Mr Olli Lempiäinen, Senior Originator, Infrastructure & Telecom, at +358 10 618 0525, olli.lempianen@nib.int

Ms Niina Rantti, Communications Officer, at +358 10 618 0265, niina.rantti@nib.int