The residents of Armenia’s Lori province will be able to receive medical services on the ground.

Armenian Health Minister Levon Altunyan, who accompanied President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan during the visit to the building ground of the future Vanadzor Medical Center, told the aforementioned to journalists Saturday.

The new center will replace two operating ones. Its patient capacity will be less by 30 beds (190), but modern equipment with all necessary infrastructures will be in place there, Altunyan said.

New medical professionals, including those of narrow specializations, will be recruited, while the practicing doctors will be retrained.

They will be able to provide medical assistance to the population using the new equipment: sonography, X-ray and 32-layer computed tomography. It is also planned to install an angiographic device for invasive cardiological operations. The prices of the new medical center shouldn’t differ from those of the centers currently operating in the city, the Minister added.

The construction has been completed by nearly 70 percent. The Obstetrics & Gynecology Unit should be ready by the end of the first quarter of 2017.

“I think the residents of the city and the region will prefer coming here for treatment to going somewhere far,” Altunyan concluded.

The overall investments in the medical center should amount to 6.6 bln AMD (nearly $14 mln). The construction and equipment of the main building of the center is carried out by different loan funds provided by the World Bank, the maternity building being built by the funds of Tashir benevolent fund.