University Clinical Centre Gdansk

The University Clinical Centre in Gdansk (Uniwersyteckie Centrum Kliniczne w Gdansku, UCK) serves as the principal university hospital affiliated with the Medical University of Gdansk (GUMed). It is organized as a single academic healthcare institution that brings together advanced, specialist clinical services with the University’s roles in teaching and scientific research, so patient care, training, and investigation are delivered within one coordinated framework. Operationally, UCK works as a citywide hospital system in Gdansk. A central feature of UCK’s development has been planned modernization through major infrastructure projects aligned with contemporary academic medicine. The CMI project was completed and officially opened in September 2011, with clinical operations commencing shortly thereafter. The CMN was inaugurated at a major opening event on 31 August 2018, with further stages completed later, including widely reported completion activity in 2021. Together, these investments are commonly presented by university and regional stakeholders as the construction of one of the most modern hospital complexes in the area. From a clinical standpoint, UCK functions as a tertiary referral center offering comprehensive specialist care across most medical fields. Public descriptions frequently highlight strengths in oncology, cardiology, and neurology, underpinned by advanced diagnostics, complex surgical capacity, rehabilitation services, and palliative care. Because of this high-acuity profile, UCK treats both local patients and referrals from other regions for selected conditions and advanced procedures. Transplantation is a particularly distinctive part of UCK’s specialist portfolio. UCK appears on Poland’s national transplant authority (Poltransplant) listings of transplant centers (including programs such as kidney and liver transplantation in Gdańsk), and the hospital reports substantial transplant activity through published annual totals and organ-specific figures (including heart, lung, liver, kidney, marrow, and cornea transplants). As an academic center, UCK is also closely tied to clinical research and innovation, including the conduct of clinical trials and dedicated organizational structures supporting research. One example is UCK’s Early-Phase Clinical Trials Center, described as a multidisciplinary unit focused on the early evaluation of new therapies for safety and effectiveness. In practice, patients most often turn to UCK when they require specialist diagnostic work-up, multidisciplinary assessment, complex inpatient management, or referral-level treatment where a university-hospital setting offers advantages, namely, access to academic expertise, modern facilities, and care pathways informed by ongoing research and development.