The Health and Consumption Counselor of the Andalusian Government, Rocío Hernández, presented in Huelva an advance of the modified project of the Maternal and Child Hospital: «A project adjusted to the new functional plan so that this hospital becomes a hospital for the future«, which will be tendered and awarded in the last quarter of this year, so construction can start in the first quarter of 2026.
Hernández, who was accompanied in the project presentation by the Mayor of Huelva, Pilar Miranda; the Government Delegate, José Manuel Correa; the territorial Delegate of Health and Consumption, Manuela Caro, and the managing director of the Juan Ramón Jiménez University Hospital, Manuel García de la Vega, explained that an internal review period of the functional aspects of the healthcare and non-healthcare activities that will be developed in the different services included in the new hospital has already been completed, adjusting them, in addition, to the new requirements that have emerged after the Covid-19 pandemic, which «have forced us to readjust the spaces and modify the functionalities included in the original project».
The new functional program leads to the establishment of new healthcare and non-healthcare organizations of spaces, with the aim of optimizing both structural and material and human resources, effectively and efficiently, taking into account the improvement of factors related to the humanization of the care provided. Among these modifications, remodeling of both the obstetric-gynecological and obstetric emergency areas stands out.
The project has a 36-month execution period and a budget of 72 million euros.
Characteristics of the new Maternal and Child Hospital
The new center, for which virtual recreations were shown in the project presentation, will be located in the heliport area in a building annexed to the Juan Ramón Jiménez University Hospital and will have an approximate area of 15,000 square meters. One of the improvements it incorporates is the expansion of the space dedicated to Child Care, which will have 400 square meters more than in the initial project.
The center unifies the Pediatrics and Gynecology and Obstetrics areas, as well as their external consultations. «In this hospital, we expect to handle more than 64,000 consultations per year, 21,000 pediatric emergencies, and 17,000 gynecological or obstetric emergencies annually,» said the counselor.
With its construction, the number of delivery rooms will increase by 25%, the number of ICU beds by 33.33%, the number of maternity beds by 12%, and by 36.6% in the number of Pediatric beds. Specifically, the new center will have a total of 125 beds, 12 of which are for ICU and 42 for Pediatrics. It will also have seven operating rooms, two of which are specifically for pediatric surgery, and ten labor and recovery units, one of which is for complex instrumental deliveries.
Among the new areas, it includes Child and Adolescent Mental Health consultations and eight beds in rooms differentiated by age for Mental Health patients; enclosed boxes with negative pressure in pediatric emergencies, a newborn resuscitation area, new Radiology rooms, and an increase in rest areas for professionals.
Additionally, the construction of the hospital center entails the release of more than 12,000 square meters, 9,000 in Juan Ramón Jiménez and 3,000 in Vázquez Díaz. These spaces that will be released will be allocated to improving facilities for oncology patients, general hospitalization, Mental Health, and Emergencies, as well as the incorporation of new services, among other improvements.