The new Hospital del Mar is starting to become a reality. Last February the work on the centre’s new building began, which covers an area of more than 20,000 m2 and adds 75 beds to the hospital’s initial capacity. This is the second phase of the expansion plan, which is to be continued in a new building, with a view to 2030.
Construction work began in July 2022 and, despite difficulties in the subsoil, the first patients have started to arrive. It is the largest modular building in Europe. To make it possible, more than 300 workers have taken turns working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The expansion of the Emergency Department is now underway, doubling its surface area to 4,000 m2, as well as new maternity and infant hospitalisation units, medical and surgical specialities. Services such as the Pharmacy and Pathological Anatomy, the new operating theatres and the new space for complementary examinations and ophthalmology will come into service in the coming months. All this will bring medical care closer to the reference population of the Hospital del Mar.
The project has taken into account the opinions of users and professionals in its design. The hospitalisation units incorporate toilets and living spaces for relatives, new furniture adapted to the requests of the people admitted and electronic tables that can be a way of transferring health education information and, at the same time, a form of entertainment. The building has also incorporated the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, separating mobility circuits for patients and professionals and providing for the easy conversion of spaces to meet new needs.
One of the highlights of the new rooms is the decoration of the bathrooms, the work of the artist Perico Pastor, who has also been a patient at the Hospital del Mar. The painter has created a series of paintings inspired by the sea and the beach for these spaces.
It is a building that considers sustainability and waste reduction. It will have 1,600 m2 of photovoltaic panels and green roofs that will reduce the carbon footprint, generating freshness and shade and creating therapeutic gardens for patients.
The works have had a budget of 73 million euros, partly financed by the REACT-EU programme of European ERDF funds, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Generalitat, through the Catalan Health Service, will spend more than 85 million euros in future budgets to finance this work and the equipment, and Barcelona City Council has invested 13 million euros. Work is now underway to define the third phase of the expansion, which will allow for more than 100,000 m2 of floor space and 544 hospital beds.
