Much of the current hospital will be demolished to make way for new buildings.

Much of the current hospital will be demolished to make way for new buildings. | Pere Bota

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma28/02/2017 00:00
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The redevelopment of Son Dureta Hospital, closed since Son Espases opened, will create 450 hospital beds for the chronically ill and 120 geriatric residential places.

President Armengol yesterday outlined the plans for the hospital along with Vice-President Barceló and the ministers for health and for social services, Patricia Gómez and Fina Santiago. She said that reopening Son Dureta for these purposes was necessary because of the aging population. It will therefore meet the needs of the present and especially the future.

The whole complex will be 76,000 square metres in size, 33,000 of which correspond to the old semicircular block. The rest will be new buildings, once existing ones have been demolished. The cost is put at 120 million euros. No definite dates have been given to the project, though the government is determined that it will start during the period of the current administration; it is thought that work will start at the end of next year. Approval for change of use from national government, which is the ultimate owner, has still to be given, but it is not believed that there will be any objection. Since Son Dureta closed, it has still cost the government money - put at five million euros.

Barceló explained that it is an "ambitious" project, for which some 1,600 people will be employed during the development. Armengol observed that in ten to twelve years time, the over-65s will represent 22% of the population. Services have to therefore be adapted in order to attend to the needs of this older population. She stated that her government is committed to improving basic services to the citizens and to ending "misapplied austerity".

There is to now be a period of consultation with associations for patients, health and social services professionals and others in order to consider the project in greater depth. Procedures have been started with the national health ministry (the one-time Social Security General Treasury is the national government's titleholder of the property) in order to get the project under way. Gómez explained that once there is the go-ahead, there will be separate tenders for demolition and the architectural project.