The architectural project has already been validated by the Infrastructure Office and is ready to be put out to tender.
It is estimated that in 2029 20% of the population of the Llevant region will be 65 years of age or older
The new intermediate care hospital in Felanitx will have 100 rooms for medium and long-stay chronic patients. The architectural project, called “Es Pas Nou”, by the Barceló-Balanzó and Sulkin Marchissio architectural studios, has already been validated by the Infrastructures Office and is ready to be put out to tender.
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Felanitx
The new hospital centre will have a total built surface area of 10,907 m² and will have one hundred double rooms for individual use to care for chronic patients in the Llevant health area. These rooms will be specially designed to guarantee the comfort and well-being of patients during their hospital stay.
The budget for the contract, excluding VAT, is €20,616,460.
This was stated by the president of the Govern, Francina Armengol, during the presentation of the project on the site where the hospital will be located, within the grounds of the Sa Mola sports complex, at the entrance to Felanitx. The president was accompanied by the regional minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Patricia Gómez, and the mayor of Felanitx, Jaume Montserrat.
Armengol stressed that “when we began to govern in 2015 we were very clear that investing in health was the best investment we could make as a public administration and that we had to plan a lot in, for example, a chronicity plan”. The President of the Government explained that, “despite the health pandemic, we have become the autonomous community with the highest life expectancy and this is good news, but it also means that we have to have adequate facilities to care for a population that will be older and that must have quality in old age”.
For her part, the councillor for Health and Consumer Affairs, Patricia Gómez, assured that “this is a project that we have taken on with a great deal of enthusiasm” after the government had considered the need “for more pleasant spaces for people with chronic illnesses who need time to recover” and explained that “the 100 rooms are planned as individual, but as time goes by they can be split up and we can have up to 200 people in them”.
This new health facility will provide comprehensive, quality care for chronic patients who need convalescence or rehabilitation care to regain their independence, and for their respective carers. Patients will receive treatment and care specifically aimed at stabilising the disease, rehabilitation and regaining personal autonomy.
The aim of the new hospital is to improve the healthcare activity in the Llevant health area, which includes Artà, Campos, Capdepera, Felanitx, Manacor, Santanyí, Son Servera, Montuïri, Petra, Porreres, Ariany, Sant Joan, Ses Salines, Sant Llorenç des Cardassar and Vilafranca and has a population of over 140,000 inhabitants, 17% of whom (i.e. almost 24,000) are over 65 years of age.
Moreover, according to the population projections of the National Institute of Statistics, it is estimated that in 2029 the population of this county will reach 148,990 people and that 20% (almost 30,000) will be aged 65 or over. This increase from 17 % to 20 % is essential for calculating the necessary resources for the new hospital. These data show a trend towards an ageing population and, consequently, a progressive increase in chronic diseases.
The new healthcare facility will offer a chronic hospitalisation area, an outpatient area and a support and general services area.
Care Plan for People with Chronic Illnesses
The new Felanitx Hospital is part of the Care Plan for People with Chronic Illnesses (2022-2026), with which the Government aims to improve care for the elderly and for complex chronic patients in a situation of dependency and to ensure palliative care for all people who are in an advanced stage of their illness, not just in the last months of their lives.
Among the most important actions that have been carried out are the training of more than two thousand primary care and hospital care professionals; the incorporation of 52 nurse case managers; the opening of specific beds for these patients in almost all the hospitals in the Balearic Islands; and the identification of 22,000 people as complex chronic patients or advanced chronic patients, which facilitates differentiated monitoring and directing them to the services that best suit their circumstances and avoids unnecessary waiting times and admissions.
The public hospitals in the Balearic Islands have units for complex chronic patients that have improved care, working specifically on the prevention of complications and the functional and cognitive deterioration that these patients can suffer when they follow the same hospitalisation circuit as a patient with an acute process. Thus, the Hospital Universitario Son Espadas has 24 beds, the Hospital Comarcal de Inca has 20 beds, the Hospital Universitario Son Llàtzer has 20 beds, and the Hospital de Manacor has 14 beds. In total, 78 beds for chronic patients in Mallorca’s acute hospitals.
Advanced chronic patient units have also been created in intermediate care hospitals (Hospital General and Hospital Joan March), which through a defined circuit with primary care and SAMU061 allows patients with more advanced chronic conditions to be admitted directly from home and receive care appropriate to their state of health, without having to go through the hospital emergency services.
Since November 2019, the Tramuntana health sector has also had an intermediate care hospital managed by San Juan de Dios, which allows this same direct admission circuit to be offered to advanced chronic patients in this sector.
In Mallorca, the Health Service has 98 beds at the General Hospital, 98 at the Joan March Hospital, 25 at the Virgen de la Salud Hospital and 160 at the San Juan de Dios Hospital, which is part of the public healthcare network.
The geriatric and therapeutic assessment day hospital has also been developed at the General Hospital as a daycare level for frail or geriatric patients with a physical disability or mild cognitive impairment who have the potential for partial or total recovery. This service is also offered in the hospitals that form part of the public network, the San Juan de Dios Hospital and, from 2019, in the Red Cross Hospital.
As for the Menorca health area, there are convalescence and palliative care beds available through agreements with the Consell Insular de Menorca and different town councils, as well as a private clinic, and in Ibiza, there is the Ca na Majora intermediate care unit, located in the former Can Misses Hospital, which has 56 beds.
Work is also underway on the former Son Dureta Hospital, which mainly foresees the construction of two hospitals, one medium-stay and one long-stay, with a total capacity of 240 and 330 rooms, and the Verge del Toro Hospital in Menorca, which will have between 60 and 90 beds.