However, during the brief meeting, the management said it was unable to provide such services to its patients, due to a lack of finances, a shortage of staff, and the old equipment and hospital rooms in dire need of renovation.

"The problem is that there have been no investments in the past years, and there were also no investment demands submitted to the ministry. So now, of course, this institution is behind when it comes to investments. Of course, we will try to meet the needs and help realize certain investments, but I did not give any promises that these things will happen next week," explained Šarec.

The head of UKC Maribor, Vojko Flis, stressed that they sent demands to the ministry for some of the most urgent investments at the beginning of the year, and added: "A new kitchen is worth 30 million euros, a new building for the Division of Internal Medicine around 60 million, and let’s not even talk about the Department for Pulmonary Diseases, but we can’t expect for any government to be able to solve these issued immediately with a magic wand."

For now, the Ministry of Health has approved some investments for UKC Maribor – the purchase of a CT scanning machine, a magnetic resonance imaging scanning machine, and the phased relocation of the Department of Pulmonary Diseases. All these investments are in progress and will be completed in the coming year, or in two years.

PM Šarec also visited the Dom Danice Vogrinec retirement home, and also held meetings with the heads of the University of Maribor and the SNG Maribor National Drama Theatre house. He ended his visit to Maribor with a speech at the Podravje 2017 Company of the Year event.