Cerdanya Hospital celebrates 10th anniversary of cross-border health center

The first binational health center, Cerdanya Hospital, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Located just 800 meters off the Spanish-French border, it serves residents in the Gran Cerdanya (Great Cerdanya) area, which is split by the border, and the historical Catalan county of Capcir on the French side.

Around 150 guests, including authorities, experts, and representatives of European institutions, attended the event to debate the opportunities and challenges of cross-border infrastructures, such as the Cerdanya Hospital.

Opened in 2014, the Hospital de Cerdanya "is a public hospital, but its peculiarity is that it is a binational public hospital managed by Catalan and French authorities," Xavier Conill, the managing director of the hospital, told Catalan News in an interview in 2023.

A decade after its inauguration, the hospital is still the only cross-border and binational health center on European soil, and the French, Spanish, and Catalan health systems manage it.

It is a "unique health center in Europe for its management and even its financing coming from both EU member states offering high-quality health care to both sides of the border," Olga Pané, current president of the organization and Catalan health minister," said during the event on Friday.

One of the challenges ahead of this binational medical facility is having "a unique legislation that recognizes its exceptionality, as the Treaty of Barcelona highlights," Pané added. The Treaty of Barcelona was an agreement between the Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez and French President Emmanuel Macron signed in 2023 in the Catalan capital.

During the Spanish-French summit, both European leaders discussed several topics, including the Cerdanya Hospital and the H2Med, a green hydrogen pipeline connecting Barcelona and Marseille.

While other European hospitals offer some cross-border services, Cerdanya Hospital is the only one considered binational and managed by administrations from two sides of an international boundary.