health

Only 80 people worldwide have rare Brown-Vialetto-Van Laere Syndrome

Project aims to raise awareness and ultimately increase number of donors in EU and neighbouring countries

More than 31,000 professionals from 140 countries to join five-day summit starting August 26

Catalan hospital, among four in the world to implant bone-anchored prosthetics to its patients

The Catalan capital competes against 18 other European cites to host the European Medicines Agency

Barcelona is one of the cities which has presented a proposal to host the European Medicines Agency, which will have to relocate from London due to Brexit. Moreover, it is the preferred option of its nearly 900 employees, who say they will be happy to relocate here. “This makes our candidature the only one which could guarantee that the essence of the EMA will remain the same, since its employees and therefore the talent will maintain,” explained Catalan Minister for Health, Toni Comín. He was one of the main speakers this Tuesday in London at the presentation of Barcelona’s candidacy to host the EMA. He was accompanied by Spanish Minister for Health, Dolors Montserrat and Barcelona’s deputy mayor, Jaume Collboni, who emphasized that the three levels of administration are “working together” to bring the EMA to the Catalan capital.

The Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, one of the pioneer hospitals worldwide in non-invasive surgery in children, is planning to use minimally invasive methods with 70 percent of its pediatric surgeries. This week various pediatric surgery specialists gathered in a congress at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital Campus to share their professional expertise. The Vall d’Hebron Hospital is one of the few hospitals capable of performing surgery on a newborn with a weight of less than 1.5 kilograms or on a 24 week-old fetus with spine bifida. Since the incorporation of Doctor Manuel López as Head of Services, pediatric laparoscopy has gotten a new boost. López has set the objective of performing the majority of the 2000 annual surgeries on children with innovative methods.

Catalans living abroad will have access to medical care through a new medical card whenever they travel home. Such was the agreement reached this Monday between Catalonia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, the Health Department, the Department for Labour and Social Affairs, and the Department for Culture. This new medical card will be valid for two months and could be extended with proper justification. Those eligible for the card must apply for it and then activate it while in Catalonia, either by calling 061 or going to their corresponding health clinic. The agreement will also allow Catalans living abroad to access services related to the culture and youth services. Catalonia’s Minister for Health, Toni Comín, explained that this agreement covers what the law for universal access to health care will guarantee once it is passed by the Parliament.

The Government’s draft for the 2017 budget was published in the Parliament’s Official Journal this Tuesday. On Wednesday, the different groups in the Catalan Chamber will be able to present appeals and the whole bill will be discussed on the 20th of December. “This is the best budget possible”, Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, stated right after presenting the draft. “The time of cutbacks is over”, he assured and emphasised that the budget for 2017 has been enhanced in comparison to the previous one “both as a whole and in each department”. Indeed, the budget for 2017 allocates €1.1 billion more to social expenditure than the bill for 2015 – which was extended for 2016. The Health System with €8.7 billion and Education and Universities with €5.5 billion are the areas with the highest amounts allocated.

The Catalan executive and radical left pro-independence CUP are negotiating the fiscal law, the so called Accompaniment Law, for the 2017 budget. The draft is set to include tax reforms as well as the introduction of new taxes especially oriented toward avoiding property speculation. One of the main hurdles has to do with the reform of income tax, which foresees the elimination of tax relief for property purchase for those who earn more than 30,000 euros per year. By applying this modification the Government could collect 11 MEUR in 2018, negotiators estimate. CUP also aimed to increase income tax for those who earn more than 60,000, but this proposal is not apparently on the table.

Re-elected Spanish President, the conservative People’s Party (PP) Mariano Rajoy unveiled this Thursday the names in his new cabinet. Catalan MP Dolors Montserrat has been designated Spanish Minister for Health, Social Services and Equality. Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría will keep her role and assume the Territorial Administrations portfolio, which was previously part of the Spanish Finance Ministry. Two of the most controversial and belligerent ministers regarding Catalonia’s pro-independence aspirations, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel García-Margallo and the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Diaz, will no longer be in Rajoy’s cabinet.

The surgical facilities at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona were created in the 50’s. Now, half of a century later, the hospital has launched a new surgical ward for highly complex surgery. It has 10,000 square metres and 19 operating theatres with cutting-edge technology. The coordinator of surgical activity, Joan Anton Huete, said that the new block will admit “a larger number of patients” and, therefore, waiting lists will be reduced. The Hospital expects to conduct more and better operations, because the surgery will be less aggressive, a fact that can make the postoperative care easier and shorten the hospitalisation period. The new surgical block has represented an investment of €37 million.

The first fatal victim of enterovirus has been confirmed this Tuesday in Catalonia. The victim was a baby who had been admitted to Parc Taulí Hospital in Sabadell, suffering from flu and vomiting followed by somnolence and flaccidity, on the 31^st of July and who died on Monday, Catalonia’s Health Department confirmed. “This is the first case in which we have been able to identify the virus, which was A-71”, CatSalut director, Josep Maria Argimon, explained. 110 enterovirus-related cases have been found in Catalonia since April and another baby is currently in the hospital as well. During a press conference this Tuesday, the head of paediatrics at Barcelona Vall d’Hebron Hospital, Carlos Rodrigo, pointed to the fact that only between 3% and 5% of enterovirus cases end up being fatal.

Health organisations in Catalonia received 43.5 MEUR from the EU Horizon 2020 programme to fund projects in this field between 2014 and 2015. This amount represents 42.5% of the total allocated by this European initiative to the Spanish State, according to figures released this Friday by the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), a public business entity which belongs to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Madrid is second on the ranking, with 25.6 MEUR received, followed by the Valencian Community, which got 8.2 MEUR. The Catalan Department for Health has stated that it considers these figures to prove “Catalonia’s clear leadership in health research”.

The Catalan Government will offer to host the European Medicines Agency’s headquarters, which is currently in London. The body, which is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies for use in the EU, is looking for a new location after ‘Brexit’ and the Generalitat will defend Catalonia’s “potential in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sector” for Catalonia to become the agency’s new home. Indeed, in the nineties the Catalan Government already presented a “very solid portfolio” to house the European Medicines Agency, which was ultimately located in London’s Canary Wharf financial district. According to sources interviewed by CNA, Catalonia is now “racing” with other countries which have also presented their candidacies, such as Sweden, Denmark and Italy.