The Community of Madrid has begun the process today to prepare the plot in Valdebebas where the new Emergency Hospital will be built. This public center will follow the model established by the regional government at IFEMA for COVID-19 patients and will consist of three pavilions that will add up to over 23,000 square meters. The project, announced this month by the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will expand the healthcare resources of the Madrid public health system by providing up to 1,000 new beds and will involve an investment of around 50 million euros.
The Regional Government has agreed to give the green light to this project, declaring it of urgent and extraordinary public interest, in accordance with Article 161 of Law 9/2001, of July 17, on Land in the Community of Madrid. The goal is to anticipate and start building the new healthcare center soon. The Community aims to have it operational in the fall, considering the possibility of a resurgence of the disease.
In addition, the Regional Government has reviewed the preliminary draft of this new hospital, which will allow the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS) to begin construction on the selected plot in Valdebebas. The land, owned by the autonomous community, is located in the Ciudad de la Justicia, next to IFEMA and Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez Airport.
The site has easy access via the A-2, M-40, M-11, M-12, M-13, and R-2 roads, and can also be reached by public transportation, as it has the Valdebebas Cercanías station within a 9-minute walk. Additionally, the Institute of Legal Medicine will be integrated as a morgue in the project of the new hospital.
Strengthening the healthcare system and being proactive
The objective of this new Emergency Hospital is to further strengthen the healthcare system in the Madrid region with a new public center to address possible COVID-19 outbreaks or other diseases. This new infrastructure will have over 1,000 beds, equipped with the most advanced medical technologies, and prepared to become a new reference center for contagious diseases.
The success experienced at the temporary hospital in IFEMA, established by the Community of Madrid for COVID-19 patients, makes it advisable to follow the same model for the construction of the new Emergency Hospital. To be able to respond to any type of epidemic/pandemic in the future, the hospital will be versatile, based on modular and sectorized pavilions (to enable only the necessary part), and capable of adapting to any functional plan designed by healthcare management.
The total area of the new Emergency Hospital will exceed 45,000 square meters, organized into three pavilions of 7,800 square meters each, a logistics center/SERMAS Central Warehouse of 7,900 square meters, a pedestrian avenue, a multi-purpose building that will integrate the regional coordination center for epidemics, a facilities center, a memorial for COVID-19 victims, and a monument dedicated to healthcare professionals.
This public center will have over a thousand beds, including 20 hospitalization units with 48 beds each, totaling 960 beds organized around nursing stations. There will also be a total of 48 ICU and Intermediate Care positions. Additionally, there will be areas for diagnostic imaging (conventional and portable X-ray rooms, a CT scan machine, an ultrasound reserve, etc.) and a laboratory.
To prevent infections
Unlike the IFEMA Hospital, it will have multipurpose care rooms that can be used as operating rooms, major ambulatory surgery areas, or simple dressing rooms for performing less complex interventions.
It is also essential, to prevent contagion, to differentiate circulation routes between patients and professionals, between clean and dirty circuits, between discharges and admissions, and between logistics/supply and patients. Furthermore, a system of controlled access gates will be implemented for specific areas of security due to the risk of contagion or exposure to viral load.
Like the IFEMA Hospital, it will have a large storage space for medical supplies, PPE, reserve furniture, electromedicine, consumables, and necessary supplies. This warehouse will function as the SERMAS Central Warehouse, supplying materials to the entire network of centers within the Madrid Health Service.
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Vía: Comunidad de Madrid
