The new space was visited this afternoon by the Vice President of the Government, Pere Aragonès, and the Minister of Health, Alba Vergés. According to Aragonès, this space "remarkably" strengthens a hospital that serves more than 2 million Catalans and is part of the commitment that the Government is making for the improvement of the public health system of Catalonia, after of years of austerity ”. The vice-president wanted to highlight the work carried out by health workers and the good health of the system, which he described as "unique, enviable, made up of incredible professionals who give everything to make us live longer and better". "A treasure we have as a society," he said.
For her part, the Minister of Health, Alba Vergés, explained that in this new space more than 200 professionals will work and stressed that it is "an improvement in patient care and also means more comfort to work for professionals" . In his speech, the director of the Catalan Health Service, Adrià Comella, explained that the Bellvitge Hospital has undergone a double action, “on the one hand the construction of the new space that will provide more capacity to the center and, on the other, the improvement and extension of the Critically Ill Area of the Bellvitge Hospital itself ”.
For her part, the managing director of Bellvitge Hospital, Montserrat Figuerola, pointed out the advantages of the new space for the territory and for Bellvitge Hospital ”on the one hand we increase the safety of patients and professionals, it adapts to the needs of the territory and finally it is very well connected with the Hospital through a walkway that allows the easy access to the room of critics ”. Figuerola also explained that "this is not an ephemeral building and is destined to last".
An equipment of 4,500 square meters
The extension is located in the north-west of the Bellvitge hospital, in front of the Old School of Nursing and very close to the Hospital’s Emergency Building. It has five floors and a total area of 4,500 square meters. The ground floor and first floor are intended for the care and follow-up of respiratory emergencies and patients with suspected Covid-19, and floors 2 and 3 each accommodate 32 conventional hospital beds for Covid-19.
The building has a connection bridge that connects this new space with the other buildings of the Hospital, in order to facilitate the transfer of patients and the mobility of professionals. This connection puts you in direct contact with the recently expanded Hospital ICU. Between September and October, the Hospital’s project to expand the beds in the Critically Ill Area was completed with 32 newly created places and all in new facilities located in the technosurgical building. This expansion has allowed the ICU to currently have a total of 90 critics.
The new space is equipped with waiting rooms for relatives and patients differentiated between suspected patients and confirmed COVID patients, with its own radiology device, and quick visit consultation rooms, as well as 48 boxes divided into two floors for patients. which require further testing or are pending evolution. This new equipment also means the release of spaces in the main building that will make it easier for Day Hospital patients to leave the premises they have temporarily occupied in the old operating room area and return to their location. usual.
The new building is one of the five new healthcare devices that the Catalan Health Service has promoted in order to improve the response to the pandemic of the comprehensive public health system in Catalonia (SISCAT). Beyond the current moment of pandemic, the long useful life of the building - of conventional construction, with prefabricated concrete structure - will allow to consolidate it in the future as one more infrastructure of the University Hospital of Bellvitge and to dedicate- lo to other uses.