The Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) and BBVA have financed, in equal parts, the construction of the new building of the Evangelical Hospital of Barcelona with 9 million euros. The health centre, which opened its doors last April on Ciutat de Granada street in the El Parc i La Llacuna del Poblenou neighbourhood, has the capacity to treat more than 2,700 patients per year and has 203 beds spread over six hospitalisation floors covering a total area of more than 10,000 m².

The new Evangelical Hospital of Barcelona will strengthen the public hospital network by supporting the Hospital del Mar and other healthcare institutions such as the Hospital de Sant Pau to attend, especially, to people with complex chronic pathologies, intensive rehabilitation needs, continuous clinical control and neurological and psychogeriatric needs or end-of-life accompaniment.

With its new location, the Evangelical Hospital leaves its historic headquarters in the Gràcia neighbourhood, where it has been located since the beginning of the 20th century, and moves to the heart of 22@ with the aim of covering the districts of Sant Martí and Ciutat Vella, with historical inequalities in social and health services.

The new headquarters, financed by the public promotion bank of the Generalitat de Catalunya and BBVA, represents a clear evolution in the hospital's healthcare capacity compared to the previous location, given that it doubles the number of people it will be able to serve annually, doubles its surface area and gains 87 more beds. 

The Evangelical Hospital Foundation is a private non-profit organisation with more than 145 years of history in Barcelona which, since 1976, has been carrying out its social and health activity in concert with the Catalan Health Service.

"We are fulfilling our work as a public bank by providing the necessary resources to make a project a reality that will improve the health care that thousands of citizens will receive and will make innovative equipment available to health professionals so that they can offer the best possible care," said the CEO of the ICF, Vanessa Servera.

"We do so by joining forces once again with private banks and demonstrating that we are not only a tool at the service of companies, but also of foundations, associations and non-profit entities that need long-term financing," added Servera.

For his part, BBVA's regional director in Catalonia, Francisco Pla, said that "channeling financing to companies and society in general is a key element for BBVA. Following the entity's desire to be an active support for the growth and economic development of companies, SMEs and individuals, as well as to be by their side in the transition to a greener, more sustainable and inclusive world."

BBVA's regional director also stressed that the bank "has among its priorities to support projects of a social nature, as shown by the great activity in the hospital sector in Catalonia, exemplified in this financing of the Evangelical Hospital."

Reyes Gualda, General Director of the Evangelical Assistance Group, emphasized that, "from the beginning, both BBVA and ICF trusted us and supported our project. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue with our mission through this new building that symbolizes a new stage for the Foundation and fulfils a dream for which we have worked for many years. We highly value the real commitment of these entities to finance projects with a high social impact in the third sector with good financial conditions".

The total investment of the project adds up to 18 million euros. The Private Foundation Evangelical Hospital has sold all its assets in the Gràcia neighbourhood and has taken out a mortgage for the next 20 years to build this new hospital on land owned by the City Council under administrative concession in Poblenou. An operation motivated by the mission of the Evangelical Hospital of Barcelona to serve the city and care for people in a comprehensive way.

After two and a half years of work and thanks to the support of financial institutions, the new building has been erected with a human, innovative and sustainable design focused on the person whose facilities represent a redefinition of health care in Barcelona. The greatest exponent of this human conception of its architecture is the so-called Empathic Room, a disruptive double room model that prioritizes autonomy, independence and the maximum possible well-being of people, and facilitates the work of the care staff.

This innovative room design is also easily reproducible in other hospitals, as evidenced by the fact that some hospitals have already decided to implement it and others are showing a lot of interest. The new building also has a gym on each floor, as well as therapy spaces and the recreation of a kitchen and bathroom to work on the adaptation and rehabilitation of the return home. The ground floor is dedicated to outpatient care, and the basement houses an auditorium.