The Department of Health has announced that it will consider sanctioning the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau and the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu for alleged errors in the detection of a child abuse case. The review affects the actions of both centers in a procedure that has not yet resulted in a final sanctioning file.
The tension of the case lies in the fact that Sant Pau maintains that its professionals acted with clinical judgment and according to protocol, while Salut is also studying whether there were failures in the initial detection of a baby who ended up being transferred to Vall d'Hebron Hospital, a reference center for child abuse.
Sant Pau defends that it activated the protocol when it identified the case
Adrià Comella, director of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, stated on the program Bon dia, Barcelona that the center is convinced that its professionals acted with clinical judgment and following protocol.
"We are convinced that our professionals acted with clinical judgment and followed the protocol" - Adrià Comella, director of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
The hospital has explained that the baby did not initially present sufficient clinical signs to activate child protection protocols. When the case was identified, the center automatically activated those mechanisms and referred the patient to Vall d'Hebron.
Sant Pau has also transferred to the Department of Health all the information that has been requested within the open administrative process. For now, it is not yet known if that procedure will lead to a definitive sanctioning file.
Comella hopes that Health will finally discard the sanction
In his statements, Comella added that he trusts the administrative review will end without punishment for the hospital. The director literally expressed that he hopes the process concludes without any type of sanction.
"We hope this ends without any kind of sanction" - Adrià Comella, director of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
The decision announced by Salut also affects the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, although the data disseminated so far focus on Sant Pau's performance and the clinical sequence that preceded the minor's referral.
Sant Pau Director Unlinks Hantavirus Outbreak from Pandemic Risk
In the same interview, Comella also addressed the hantavirus outbreak and downplayed the alarm generated around that episode. He linked the confusion to the fact that the outbreak originated on a ship at sea.
"Hantavirus does not have pandemic capacity and, despite the elements of confrontation, this is a known virus" - Adrià Comella, director of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
Comella attributed the social alarm to the misunderstanding of an outbreak with an unusual origin and said that he trusts that the situation will be limited to the cases already registered. The detail he underlined was precisely that the outbreak originated on a ship at sea.