The World Health Organization (WHO) congratulated the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital for its management, before and during the health crisis caused by the coronavirus. This has been stated by Dr. Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General, Office of the Director-General of this organization, during a visit to our hospital where he assured that “Vall d'Hebron has done a great job to become a center Covid, reformulate all the spaces and prepare their professionals to advance the virus”.
The Canadian epidemiologist has been in Vall d'Hebron together with Pilar Aparicio, General Director of Public Health, Quality and Innovation of the Ministry of Health, the General Secretary for Health, Laura Pelay and the director of AQUAS, Dr. César Velasco, after having previously met with the Health Minister, Alba Vergés.
During their visit, the authorities have met with the manager of the Hospital, Dr. Albert Salazar, the Healthcare Director, Dr. Antonio Roman, Mª Àngels Barba, Director of Nursing and Dr. Magda Campins, head of the Epidemiology Service, who have explained the situation today and have provided all the local technical information required by WHO. Subsequently, they have moved to the area where the contingency plan has been devised, where, by the hand of the assistant directors, doctors Rocío Cebrián and Maria José Abadías, they have broken down how the hospital has been converting spaces to multiply by almost 7 the ICU bed capacity available. "It is impressive how you have advanced to what was going to happen, really an example", have insisted Bruce Aylward and Pilar Aparicio.
The delegation has visited some of the new spaces converted into ICUs, such as the Simulation Area or the Process Unit so far, located on the fifth floor of the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital, where there are already some Covid patients and where they have been finished all the necessary facilities to host more in the coming days.
Lastly, Aylward and Aparicio also wanted to get to know the Vall d'Hebrón Sports Pavilion, where for a few days there have been non-critical Covid patients, with a capacity for 132. Both have highly valued “the proximity of this facility with the hospital center”.
