Presentation

The origins of the Peracamps Centre are connected with the surgical service, which the City Council based in the Hospital de la Mare de Déu de l'Esperança, in 1948. Initially it occupied 30 beds, despite the reticence of the hospital's management which saw the coexistence of emergency care together with the main activity of care for chronic patients as a problem. Being quite far away from what was then the centre of public activity, it was considered that it should be moved to another place.

In 1968, the City Council opened a centre in the Raval area, with the purpose of attending to the city's surgical emergencies and trauma (a task that it carried out for 26 years). At that time it was justifiable to create such a single-purpose centre for attending to those healthcare needs.

Furthermore, this centre had to be assessed in terms of the creation of a proper healthcare organisation by the municipal authorities. In this context, having lost the specific label "Hospital of Infectious Diseases", the Hospital del Mar carried out the functions of a general hospital. However, the Hospital de la Mare de Déu de l'Esperança was dedicated, almost exclusively to the care of chronic or long-term patients, reflecting its previous role as the "Hospital for Incurables".

In 1983, Barcelona City Council created the Institut Municipal of d'Assistència Sanitària (IMAS), with the aim of managing the whole municipal healthcare network, and the reorganisation of its municipal hospitals began. The Hospital del Mar had become consolidated as a third level general hospital. The Peracamps Emergency Service took on the emergencies from the Ciutat Vella district that did not require surgery, and coordinated with the Hospital del Mar for the transfer of patients who did need it. In the same year, a Primary Healthcare Centre was opened on the first floor of the Peracamps Centre, substituting the old municipal dispensaries. This was structured in order to attend to the people of Barcelona who had neither their own financial resources nor Social Security cover (the absolute penniless of former times).

In 1986, the Peracamps Centre became licensed to teach in order to participate in the MIR family and community medicine programme.

In 1987, a financial agreement was signed with the Catalan Health Institute (l'Institut Català de la Salut: ICS) to become incorporated into the Network of Public Hospitals as a basic level centre. In 1988, a new 800m² gymnasium was built, and its role as the centre of reference for Rehabilitation was consolidated. In the same year, the Ambulance Service (Servei d'Ambulàncies Municipals: SAMU), responsible for transporting the patients, was also reorganised. From this year, it took on, as a priority activity, the in situ attendance of road accident victims and their transfer to hospital, coordinated from the computerised central office located at the Peracamps Centre. In 1991, the integration of the SAMU into the Barcelona Medical Emergency Coordination Centre was completed by way of an agreement between the Catalan Health Service and the Barcelona Healthcare Consortium.

In 1989, the Peracamps Centre became the organisational and functional hub for four areas of the municipal healthcare service: The Primary Healthcare Centres, Family Planning Centres, the Municipal Ambulance Service and the activities of rehabilitation and emergencies. Also in 1989, taking advantage of the municipal healthcare computer network, visits to the Primary Healthcare Centres at the out-patient care departments of the Parc de Salut MAR hospitals (Mar, Esperança and Peracamps), began to be programmed from the Peracamps Centre.

The Rehabilitation Service was transferred to the Hospital de l'Esperança at the end of September 1993.