Hospital Sant Rafael very welcomed the year of the social dining room integrated into downtown life.

– it’s a unique experience of integration of a social dining room in a health centre

– the food is cooked in the same hospital and staff of the Centre distributes voluntarily

-project started in September 2010 and is part of the network of social services of Barcelona

Barcelona, September 2011.- A year after the launch of this projectHospital Sant Rafael de Barcelona valued very positively the evolution of the social dining room in the hospital, both by the service offered by the involvement of workers in the Hospital.

It’s a unique experience of integration of a social dining room in a hospital compound, where the cuisine of the Centre takes advantage and same Hospital professionals make volunteers to feed people in situations of poverty or social exclusion of all ages.

This new resource is funded and managed entirely by sisters hospital and has been incorporated in the network of social services of Barcelona, which has become the thirteenth equipment of social dining room in the city.

The Dining Hall opened its doors on September 13, 2010, from enable one of costumes in disuse of the hospital campus. Currently, this service runs the noonS from Monday to Friday with food which is produced in the same hospital and with the collaboration of ten volunteers working in the Center, six sisters and two supervisors. These workers make shifts because every day there are three people in response to the users of the dining room, people of all ages in a situation of poverty or social exclusion arising from the municipal social services.

In this sense, the involvement of workers in the Hospital of Sant Rafael in the functioning of the social dining room both sisters is absolute ”, says Dr. Mauri, Manager of the Centre and, in addition, volunteer of the dining room.

Mauri explains, also, that this kind of actions are very important in the current scenario, where increasingly there are more people who have serious difficulties in meeting their most basic needs ”. This is reflected in the fact that there are currently waiting list for access to the dining room.

The initiative of the social dining room emerged from the will of the hospital sisters meet the nutritional needs of people in poverty and social exclusion of all ages, providing a care individualized depending on the requirements of each user.

On the Hospital Sant Rafael

Hospital Sant Rafael is a general hospital with the Catalan health service (CatSalut) and belongs in the hospital network of public use (XHUP).

Founded in 1888 by father Benito Menni in the District of Les Corts in Barcelona, it was the first Center of the hospital sisters in Catalonia. With the name of asylum Sant Rafael, born to give free host to poor children with health problems and in 1963 moved to the Paseo de Vall d ’ Hebron, where he became the modern hospital is today day.

With more than 1,000 operations a year of antepie and retopie, the Hospital Sant Rafael is currently the first hospital of Spain in surgery of the foot and ankle. There is also a unit of dental care for the disabled which is unique in Catalonia. In recent years, it has also boosted other specialties such as internal medicine, the rheumatologists and ophthalmology, and is a pioneer at the national level in the incorporation of the Nordic walking in the healthcare process.

According to recent surveys of CatSalut user satisfaction, is the hospital better appreciated by the citizens.