The Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Rocío Hernández, has reiterated that the tendering and awarding of the construction of the new Maternal and Child Hospital in Huelva will take place in the last quarter of 2025, with the aim of starting work in the first quarter of 2026. This was confirmed during her speech at the Health Committee of the Andalusian Parliament, emphasizing the importance of this project for healthcare in Huelva.
Hernández explained that the modification of the original functional plan from 2019 was necessary following the Covid-19 pandemic, which rendered the initial planning obsolete. «These new dates are the result of the modification made to the original 2019 functional plan, which, after the Covid-19 pandemic, became outdated in the current situation,» she emphasized.
The Minister insisted that this adaptation responds to technical criteria that determine the project’s needs and the appropriate timelines for its execution. «We have been and continue to work on an invisible but absolutely essential administrative task to carry out this new adaptation, which will have a cost of 72 million euros and a three-year execution period from the start of construction,» she noted.
The future Maternal and Child Hospital will have an area of 15,000 square meters, representing an increase of 400 square meters from the initial plan. Additionally, its construction will free up over 12,000 square meters in other hospital centers in the province, thus improving care for cancer patients, general hospitalization, mental health, and emergency services.
Among the improvements in the new design, there is a 25% increase in the number of delivery rooms, a 33% rise in intensive care units, and a 36.6% increase in pediatric hospitalization. There will also be a 13% increase in beds for women’s care in obstetrics and gynecology specialties.
«All these improvements mean that we also have to adjust the timelines we had initially planned, but we do this for a very simple reason: because we want to respond not only to the current population of Huelva but also to the one in 10, 15, or 20 years’ time,» the Minister said, ensuring that the new hospital will meet the province’s healthcare needs in the coming decades.
Hernández acknowledged that she would like the timelines to be faster, but reiterated that planning must follow technical criteria. «We are the first ones who would like everything to be faster and to have been able to start construction as soon as possible, but administrative work also has its own timelines that must be accepted, and the criteria of technical services take precedence, not the desire that we all have for this hospital to start operating as soon as possible,» she stated.
The Minister concluded by affirming that this project puts an end to a historical demand in the province and will ensure comprehensive care for the pediatric population and women. «With it, we will provide comprehensive care to the pediatric population and women from the perspective of obstetrics and gynecological treatment, putting an end to a historical demand in this region,» she concluded.