In a ceremony held on 21 October, the Mayor of El Prat, Lluís Mijoler, presented the City Medal to Bellvitge Hospital on behalf of the city council. This recognition is a tribute to the work of the HUB in the medical field, as well as for the support of the public health system and the quality of life improvement with which this hospital has provided the citizenship.
“We receive this recognition as an incentive to the pursuit for excellence and vocation of public service of the more than 5,000 professionals working at the hospital (being hundreds from El Prat)". With these words of gratitude, Dr Montserrat Figuerola, territorial manager of the ICS’s Southern Metropolitan Area of the ICS, received the award on behalf of the hospital at the ceremony held in the Plenary Hall of El Prat.
"We also welcome this medal as a reaffirmation of the will for networking between the hospital, the primary and community care services, the social services of the El Prat and, in short, between administrations supporting the health care in the town," Dr Figuerola added.
Bellvitge is the reference and proximity hospital for El Prat citizens. In 2021, the HUB recorded 93,000 outpatient visits, 12,400 emergency episodes, 3,300 hospitalisations with surgery and 1,600 outpatient surgeries for people living in El Prat. The Mayor of El Prat, Lluís Mijoler, considered it "a luxury" that the town’s reference hospital "is one of the country's leading hospitals", both in terms of healthcare and medical research, as well as of professional training and public healthcare support.
"The citizens of El Prat have filled all of the 19 floors of the hospital with stories, experiences and memories of hard and happy moments, all of them key moments in our lives," said Mijoler.
"You have built a public service that we must now claim and defend as what it is, one of the great assets of the working people of our cities", said the Mayor, a member of the 50th anniversary of the HUB's Honorary Committee.
The El Prat Health Councillor, Gabriel Soriano, highlighted the major breakthroughs achieved by the hospital over the last five decades". At the same time, he reiterated the El Prat people’s sense of belonging with the hospital, "for the efforts of its team of professionals to offer them quality health care, and for its proximity, less than 2 km from El Prat".
In his speech, both the mayor and the health councillor remembered the HUB’s key role in giving COVID-related care to El Prat citizens. Precisely, the experience of Fernando Domínguez, who was the first COVID-19 patient to leave the HUB’s ICU, is the subject of the documentary 103, made by the Prat photojournalist David Airob, together with José Bautista.
The El Prat’s City Medal is the highest distinction awarded by the town’s council, being an expression of gratitude to individuals or organisations that have stood out for their achievements or for having provided significant services to the city. Last September the Prat’s council unanimously ratified the award to the Bellvitge University Hospital.
Watch the video of the event here.