Patrons have left a profound mark on the history of Catalonia. The Targary knight Pau Ferran is remembered because upon his death in 1649, he bequeathed 100,000 ducats for the construction of the Casa de la Convalescència (House of Convalescence), the building adjacent to the Hospital de la Santa Creu (Hospital of the Holy Cross) and current headquarters of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Institute of Catalan Studies). Now, his portrait takes center stage in one of the rooms of the Modernist complex of the Hospital de Sant Pau, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner at the beginning of the 20th century. It is here that two experts, David Silvestre and Irene Panadés, are examining its state of conservation to prepare for its future restoration.

This week, I was admitted to Sant a Pau Hospital as a companion during a surgical procedure that required an overnight stay and then home. And I was delighted to discover that even in large public organizations, it is possible to improve service by listening to users.

Carlota (fictitious name) has just met the Barça first-team players from a bed at Sant Pau Hospital. Like other Barça players, it brings a boost of joy to her routine. After the visit, the young woman spends hours making a personalized bracelet for each of them. She also works with the pediatrics and clinical hematology department at Sant Pau Hospital. According to Tobajas, chemotherapy treatments cause immunosuppression and force children to drop out of school.

It's Monday and Matthew and Aidan, aged six and eight respectively, are at the Sant Pau pediatric day hospital. While receiving treatment, each one entertains himself as best he can: the former with a tablet and the latter with a mobile phone. Suddenly, Laura and Gisela, professional storytellers, burst into the room in their lab coats, tights, and colorful flip-flops, and their cart (a customized wheelchair) full of books, and ask the children if they'd like to hear a story. They both answer affirmatively. For Matthew, this is his first contact with the children. Tales that healFrom that moment on, the two little ones stop being just patients and become what they are: children who let themselves be carried away by the magic of a story, who are infected by the emotion with which the storytellers tell the adventures of the Pirate Malapata and Bunny Ralph, who laugh and interact with each other—when they previously didn't even know each other—while imagining, with the help of the narrators, that they are aboard a pirate ship.

This Monday It transpired that the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona The hospital suffered the theft of 13 endoscopy tubes from its facilities last Saturday. However, according to the ARA, almost identical events occurred in June of last year: up to fifteen tubes of this type were stolen from the same hospital, used, among other things, to perform colonoscopies. At that time, the value of the theft amounted to 400,000 euros, according to the complaint from the health centre. Therefore, in almost six months the hospital itself has been the victim of two identical robberies and has had material stolen that exceeds half a million euros, while waiting to quantify exactly the cost of the material stolen in the latest theft, which has initially been valued at around 100,000 euros.