On March 16, the hospital’s new facilities were unveiled following four years of construction. The expansion adds a total of 31,000 square meters of floor space and improves existing areas to make them more comfortable, efficient, and sustainable.
The opening ceremony was attended by the President of the Catalan Government, Salvador Isla, the Regional Minister of Health, Olga Pané, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni.
Hospital de la Mar, a leading healthcare facility for more than 350,000 people, has completed phase two of its renovation project—phase one concluded in May 2017—and is immediately beginning the final phase three of expansion. These renovations have enabled the hospital to incorporate six inpatient units across three floors for Pediatrics and Neonatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and surgical specialties—adding 75 more beds—; dedicated emergency departments for orthopedic surgery and traumatology, pediatrics, and psychiatry; a new “post-COVID” ICU—designed based on lessons learned from the pandemic—; four new high-complexity operating rooms that will begin operations in May; a new pain management unit; a new endoscopy suite; a helipad; and a new robotic pharmacy service, unique in the world, which triples its floor space and is committed to automating and digitizing every stage of the process, optimizing space by up to 80%. This pharmacy service makes it possible to “increase the volume of stored medications by 60%,” according to Isabel Izquierdo, director of General Services at Hospital del Mar.
President Isla expressed his conviction that the renovations carried out at Hospital del Mar have resulted in “first-class facilities staffed by first-class professionals serving the public.”
Mayor Collboni emphasized that “the great treasure we have in this country and in this city is a public healthcare system that guarantees true equality of access to healthcare services, which is the foundation of a welfare society and a cohesive and truly egalitarian society.”
The chair of the board of directors of the Hospital del Mar Consortium, Marga Esteve, emphasized that “this expansion allows us to continue to be a leading center of the highest caliber—the kind of hospital the city deserves—because the Hospital del Mar is the hospital for the citizens of Barcelona.”
Preliminary planning work for the third phase of the expansion is already underway. On November 29, 2024, the Barcelona City Council approved the Special Urban Planning and Urban Improvement Plan for the site housing the Hospital del Mar and the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), which allows for the construction of an additional 48,000 m² in a twin building to the one now being inaugurated, effectively doubling the Center’s initial floor area. Work is now underway to define and adapt the uses of the new building to current needs, with the new functional plan, which will incorporate a net increase of 86 beds across 6 inpatient units, bringing the total to 544 beds, and 7 new operating rooms, for a final total of 24 operating rooms. It will also include a new surgical ICU, the expansion of the Intensive Care Units (ICUs), the restructuring and expansion of the Radiology Department, and the new Radiopharmacy.
This expansion is necessary to ensure the future of Hospital del Mar’s care capacity, reorganizing and improving workflows and processes—such as those in the Radiology Department—and facilitating the center’s commitment to advanced therapies and its ability to conduct Phase 1 clinical trials.
This third phase, encompassing design, construction, and equipment, has an estimated budget of over 180 million euros, with the goal of completing the work by 2032.
