At the Vall d'Hebron hospital complex, a series of actions will be carried out to configure what will be the new health campus after a reorganization and modernization of the current facilities and the construction of new equipment, with an investment that will exceed 270 million euros and should be completed in 2028.
The first projects to be undertaken are the construction of a new building, called FUL (Pharmacy, Emergency and Logistics Building), which will centralize all emergencies, except pediatric ones, and which will connect the general hospital with the Hospital of Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns. It is a construction of 28,732 square meters with a landscaped roof to favor integration into the green environment of Collserola, with an investment of 90 million euros for which the Department of Health has requested FEDER funds, which will not be completed until 2028.
The other major work will correspond to the new consultations of La Teixonera, which will group all outpatient services, except pediatric ones, and external specialty consultations, and which will be located on the other side of the Ronda de Dalt, specifically above the L3 metro depots. The Teixonera building, where about 70 million euros will have to be invested, will have about 36,000 square meters and should be ready by 2024.
The Minister of Health, Josep Maria Argimon, describes the reform as "ambitious" to consolidate Vall d'Hebron as one of the "flagships of the Catalan health network" and because "Vall d'Hebron is a hospital that not only has an assistance will, ---which it has and a lot---, but also has a research, teaching and innovation will," he adds.
Although some remodeling works of existing facilities began in 2017, some projects were halted and others postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, as recognized by Dr. Alberto Salazar, manager of Vall d'Hebron, during the presentation of the campus reorganization plan that includes the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, the VHIR, the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), the CEEM (Multiple Sclerosis Center of Catalonia) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Salazar stated that the new health space will open up and integrate more into the city thanks to the construction of a large park connected to neighboring neighborhoods and open to the public.
Regarding the rest of the actions, up to a total of 22 planned that will amount to some 63 million euros, a new space will be opened to diagnose and control arrhythmias: 540 m² with state-of-the-art technology. In 2022 it will be the turn of the Neonates, with you as at home space, a project that transforms 444 m² of the intermediate and basic neonatology care unit into twelve family rooms. And also next year, the new Radiopharmacy area and the Advanced Clinical Simulation Center are expected to become operational, 1,148 square meters where professionals and students will be able to practice with innovative tools and clinical cases.
In the last four years, certain improvement actions have already been carried out, but the pandemic paralyzed and postponed several of the planned works.In parallel, there are other projects underway such as the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit; the renovation of the second and fifth floors of pediatric hospitalization; phases five and six of the improvement of the current Emergency Department; the Pediatric Oncohematology Hospitalization Unit; the Child and Adolescent Rehabilitation Therapeutic Area; a new Stroke Area, a new Heart Area; the Pathological Anatomy laboratory and the Trauma Center.
What is already in the execution phase is the new Vall d'Hebron Research building, where more than 1,000 researchers work, which will cost some 40 million euros, plus another 20 million destined for a cyclotron, which will allow the development of molecular medicine that uses radioisotopes for in vivo diagnoses and new treatments. It is being built on the grounds of the old Hospital laundry and will have 16,757 square meters. Located between the teaching building of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital, the new building will allow disruptive and excellent research to be carried out and bring research even closer to the healthcare field.
This is without taking into account that in the last four years, the adaptation of the equipment for Pediatric Outpatient Consultations has already been completed; the Adult Multipurpose Day Hospital and the Pediatric Multipurpose Day Hospital; adult hematology chambers; a new space for hemodialysis; the Ronald McDonald Room, to accompany the families of hospitalized children; the new pediatric imaging diagnosis area, and the first four phases of the adaptation of the current Emergency Department, which in the future will be centralized in the new FUL Building.