Por Ismael Buendia 
The Minister of Health and Consumption, Rocío Hernández, has reminded that the licitation and awarding of the works of the new Maternal and Child Hospital of Huelva will be carried out in the last quarter of 2025, with the aim of starting the works 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 the health system in Huelva.
Hernández explained that the modification of the original functional plan from 2019 was necessary after the Covid-19 pandemic, which made 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, has become obsolete in the current situation,» she emphasized.
The Minister insisted that this adaptation responds to technical criteria that determine the needs of the project and the appropriate deadlines for its execution. «We have been and continue to work on an invisible but absolutely unavoidable and necessary 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 the works,» she pointed out.
The future Maternal and Child Hospital will have an area of 15,000 square meters, which represents an increase of 400 square meters compared to the initial plan. In addition, its construction will release more than 12,000 square meters in other hospital centers in the province, thus improving care for oncology patients, general hospitalization, mental health, and emergency care.
Among the improvements included in the new design, there is a 25% increase in the number of delivery rooms, a 33% increase 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 the obstetrics and gynecology specialties.
«All these improvements imply that we also have to adapt the deadlines that were initially planned, but we do it for a very simple reason: because we want to respond not only to the current population of Huelva, but to that of 10, 15, or 20 years from now,» the Minister indicated, ensuring that the new hospital will meet the health needs of the province in the coming decades.
Hernández acknowledged that she would like the deadlines to be faster, but reiterated that planning must follow technical criteria. «We are the first ones who would like everything to be faster and have been able to start the works as soon as possible, but administrative work also involves times that must be assumed, and the criteria of the technical services are the ones that prevail, not the desire we all have for this hospital to start operating as soon as possible,» she stated.
The Minister concluded by ensuring that this project puts an end to a historical demand in the province and will guarantee comprehensive care for the pediatric population and women. «With it, we will be able to provide global and comprehensive care to the pediatric population and women both from the obstetrics and gynecological treatment perspective and put an end to a historical demand of this land,» she concluded.