A new emergency service, which doubles the area of the previous one, and 75 rooms are the first facilities that the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona has begun to put into operation, a year and a half after the beginning of the project that will conclude in 2030 and It will mean a total transformation of the healthcare complex. The work as a whole is budgeted at 150 million euros, of which 65 million were contributed by the EU with the requirement that the works had been completed before December 31 of this year. For this reason, the hospital has rushed to launch the facilities financed by community funds.
Although great difficulties have been found in the subsoil and 12 seawater pumping wells had to be installed, the works have been developed intensively and in record time taking advantage of the advantages of modular construction: it is the largest prefabricated concrete structure in Spain and one of the largest in Europe.
The new building has 22,500 m2 of constructed area and the new services and units will come into operation progressively until the end of the year. On March 13, the expansion of the emergency service was inaugurated, which goes from 2,600 m2 to 5,200 m2 and includes emergency care in pediatrics, psychiatry, surgical specialties and traumatology, with 72 care and consultation points. Facilities must allow patient assessment times to be optimized to avoid unnecessary waits. The hospital attends to a daily average of 41 children's emergencies and more than 14 psychiatric ones.
The new maternal and child area, which has family rooms and a newborn unit, has also begun to receive patients. The hospitalization floors for medical and surgical specialties will soon follow suit. The hospital gains 75 rooms, which have been designed taking into account the opinion of professionals and a patient forum, and the deep-rooted criterion of humanization of the center.
It is not surprising that patients requested that all rooms have sea views – a request logically not granted – but perhaps they did want to do without television in the rooms and prefer a screen to connect their portable devices, Wi-Fi, and many plugs. Olga Pané, hospital manager, on the verge of retirement, was also surprised that the patients expressed more concern for their family members than for themselves, demanding rest areas or microwaves to heat their food.
Natural light, lighting control, functional furniture, wide hallways and... a work of art in each sink. The artist Perico Pastor has been in charge of decorating the bathrooms with a dozen original works. “Happy images, devoid of transcendence and pretensions,” he says: “For me, the assignment has been a gift: to be able to accompany and make life more bearable for the people who are here.”
As a result of learning from the pandemic, the new building has a double circulation circuit on all floors in order to avoid crossings between family members and healthcare workers.
According to Pané, the project responds to the needs of new generations, who will have a life expectancy of 100 years, as well as the climate challenge, which will bring new diseases and increase with the emission of gases. The healthcare sector is a large emitter, comparable in numbers to that of aviation, but the new hospital has reduced its emissions by 41%, with 1,600 m2 of photovoltaic panels, among other measures.
