Palata II Tops Out: 73 Dementia Beds in Košíře, Due April 2027

Prague has formally launched the city's first mental health centre for seniors and confirmed that the new pavilion meant to extend it — Palata II, with 73 places — is structurally complete and due to open in April 2027. City representatives and Domov Palata, which will run both services, presented them to journalists on 24 August, according to a ČTK report carried by archiweb.

The centre itself has been running since March as a pilot project, in rented premises on Starokošířská street in Prague 5. It offers free help to seniors with mental illness — dementia in particular — as well as to their families and carers. The team is a mix of psychiatrist, geriatrician and social workers, and can work with people directly in their own homes. It currently looks after roughly 45 clients.

Two services, one building, in that order

The sequencing here is worth noting, because it inverts the usual pattern. Prague has run the service for five months in rented rooms and is now building the premises around it, rather than completing a building and then finding a use.

Deputy Mayor Alexandra Udženija (ODS) framed the centre as the first tier of a graded system.

"Our aim is for seniors to be able to live at home as long as possible, in familiar surroundings and among their loved ones. And if that is no longer possible, we must offer them dignified, safe and high-quality residential services."

— Alexandra Udženija, Deputy Mayor of Prague (ODS)

Per Udženija, seniors and their relatives can approach the centre for information alone, and the team will then help them find care matching their needs.

What Palata II contains

The new pavilion goes up on the grounds of the Domov Palata complex, which already contains Palata I — a historical building operating a special regime for clients with dementia, among them people with disabilities. Palata II adds 73 places.

The internal split is four wards for 60 clients in the second stage of dementia, plus two specialised "Oáza" wards for a further 13 people in the most severe phase of the illness. Udženija says the pavilion is laid out to give clients privacy and to resemble a domestic environment as far as possible; consulting rooms and adapted outdoor spaces are part of it.

The rough construction is already finished. Udženija put completion in the spring of next year, with April the expected date.

Once the pavilion is done, part of the mental health centre moves into Palata II, where the consulting rooms and other back-of-house facilities for it will sit. That is the point at which the two services stop being separate: support for seniors who can stay at home, and residential care for those who no longer manage at home, run from the same address.

The expansion behind it

Prague is preparing a further extension of these services. The city has picked another building in Prague 5 which it wants to transfer under Domov Palata and convert into a complete mental health centre for seniors. Details will be presented later, as preparation progresses — so the site has not been named.

The capacity figures Udženija gave put the pavilion in context. Since 2024 Prague has increased capacity in its homes for seniors by 147 places; a further 193 places are currently under construction, and realisation is being prepared for roughly 300 more. In total, per Udženija, the city has secured or is preparing more than 600 new places in homes for seniors.

Palata II's 73 places are therefore around 38 per cent of what is currently on site across the city, and around an eighth of the whole programme. Udženija tied the programme to the gradual ageing of the population, which she said is driving up the need for both capacity and services.

All the figures above are the city's own, presented at its own press conference; ČTK's report does not carry an independent check on them, and neither do we. What is verifiable on the ground is the one thing that is already built: a completed rough structure in Košíře with a stated opening date eight months out.