Municipal centres and city hotels have been converted into temporary medical facilities to help hospitals provide care for Covid-19 patients. The boost to capacity was possible thanks to coordination between administrations, municipal services and the Barcelona Hotel Guild, with guidance from Metges sense Fronteres.
More resources and more beds to avoid the city’s hospitals being overwhelmed. Barcelona City Council has transformed various municipal facilities into temporary medical centres, providing support for the city’s main hospitals with 550 extra beds for Covid-19 patients.
The four field hospitals have been set up in the following municipal facilities:
- CEM Olímpics, in operation since 29 March, attending to 132 patients from the Hospital Vall d’Hebron.
- CEM Claror, in operation since 2 April, offering 72 places for patients from the Hospital del Mar.
- CEM Guinardó, in operation since 5 April, providing extra capacity for the Hospital de Sant Pau with 100 beds.
- Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya (INEFC), in operation since 15 April, able to take 252 patients from the Hospital Clínic.
Municipal services were made available to the Barcelona Health Consortium to get the temporary hospitals ready, with guidance from Metges sense Fronteres.
The Barcelona Hotel Guild also helped arrange for twelve hotels to be used for non-critical patients and by medical staff for resting. The Hotel Catalonia Barcelona Plaza, which has been operating as a medical facility since 30 March, also offers capacity for up to 300 patients from the Hospital Clínic.
A municipal technical office is coordinating logistics and material to enable the centres to operate as medical facilities, while the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Health is providing staff and care criteria.