The new Tortosa hospital now has a larger location and is in a non-flood zone.

BarcelonaAfter years of setbacks, the Tortosa City Council and the Generalitat have found a plan B to locate the University Hospital of Terres de l'Ebre in a new area with no risk of flooding and larger than initially planned. This Thursday, the Regional Minister for Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, signed a protocol with the Mayor of Tortosa, Jordi Jordan, by which the Generalitat (Catalan Government) commits to guaranteeing the urban planning procedures to facilitate access to the new hospital center that will be built in Raval de la Llet, in the Sant Llàtzer neighborhood.

Almost twenty years have passed since 2006, when the then Regional Minister for Health, Marina Geli, announced the construction of a new reference hospital in Terres de l'Ebre in Tortosa. But the subsequent economic crises and the purchase of flood-prone land by the previous Convergent government delayed what some hospital workers consider a "health emergency" due to the precarious conditions in which they must care for patients.

At the beginning of March, the Generalitat (Catalan government) announced that the land purchased by the former government is in a flood zone and that at the time of purchase it had not been "accepted by any regional minister," as the mayor of Tortosa recalled in a press conference this Thursday. The cost of the 54,000 square meters located at the time on Camí de Roquetes was €615,000.

Furthermore, the current reference hospital for Terres de l'Ebre, the Virgen de la Cinta Hospital, is located on archaeological land and surrounded by medieval walls, so its expansion is currently on hold while a historical study of the remains is underway. For this reason, the Department of Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition, the Tortosa City Council, the Department of Health, and the Government Delegate in Terres de l'Ebre agreed to create a working group to study possible locations.

84,000 m²

To unblock the construction of the new Terres de l'Ebre University Hospital, the city council and the Generalitat (Catalan government) have presented a new "area with no risk of flooding and, therefore, outside the preferential flow zone," explained Jordan. The new hospital will occupy 84,000 square meters, larger than previously planned, as the Generalitat (Catalan government) requested more square meters to guarantee the capacity required for a university hospital.

"The location ensures easy access for citizens, university students, and professionals who come to work. The location is ideal for good connections to the C-42 and, consequently, to the road network that links Tortosa and its surroundings," explained Paneque. The land is part of the undeveloped strategic residential area of Raval de la Leche. The hospital will be located 1.5 kilometers from the city center and will be accessible via the C-42 motorway, where a new direct access is planned just before the Portals de Tortosa shopping area, and which will be a few kilometers from the C-12, the Eix de l'Ebre.