The Department of Health of the Generalitat will implement a new model of pediatric care in primary care, which includes the launch next year (in a progressive manner) of a total of 79 territorial teams of pediatric care ( ETAP), with nurses and pediatricians. This means that most of the primary care centers that until now had a pediatrician will no longer have one and that families will have to go to another physical space – still to be announced in most cases – whenever they want for this professional to visit their children. Salut also announced yesterday the addition of a new pediatric service to 061 Salut Respon from June 2024.
In a press conference, the councilor of the branch, Manel Balcells, remarked that they have been working for months on this new model of pediatric care, which “is a guarantor in terms of equity and care quality throughout the territory” . “We work tirelessly so that all children receive the best care possible”, he stressed.
Pediatric care will be concentrated in 79 ETAPs, of which 25 are currently in operation. As for the rest, the location is not yet known. In this regard, Balcells wanted to reassure families by arguing that they will receive all the necessary information when they call their usual CAP and also through 061.
The head of pediatric action at the ministry, Gemma Ricós, explained that each of the ETAPs will have between eight and fifteen pediatricians and between eight and fifteen nurses, who will all be linked to between four and seven basic health areas (made up of neighborhoods or districts in urban areas, or by one or more municipalities in rural areas) and that each facility will have its own management team and an independent management budget, located in the same building or in different ones.
Within an ETAP there will also be specialist family and community nurses with experience in paediatrics, health social workers, dentists, nursing assistants and health administrators.
Balcells stated that the professionals will be “dimensioned” with respect to the needs of each of the facilities – which will provide attention to between 5,000 and 25,000 children aged 0 to 14 each – and that the model has been compared with professional associations and parliamentary groups .
When asked about the social and neighborhood groups that have expressed doubts about the model, Balcells asked them to “take a good look at it and wait to see how it will develop”, then stressing that it is a guaranteed model to offer better assistance. Likewise, he argued that the new system does not unleash “accessibility and proximity”. In this sense, he recalled the possibility of contacting a pediatrician – from June 1 – directly through 061. Ricós added that the idea is to ensure that the travel time from any area basic to a specific ETAP is a maximum of 30 minutes with the usual means of transport and always taking into account, of course, the characteristics of the territory, such as the rurality and the climate.
