The Obispo Polanco Hospital in Teruel becomes a university hospital

The Hospital Obispo Polanco is the first to be named a university hospital in the province of Teruel and joins the other four in Aragon. This is the first step towards the introduction of the Medicine degree in Teruel

On December 23, 2024, the Ministers of Health of the Government of Aragon, José Luis Bancalero Flores, and of Employment, Science and Universities, Claudia Pérez Forniés, together with the rector of the University of Zaragoza, José Antonio Mayoral Murillo, signed the modification of the agreement on the use of health centers, to include the Hospital Obispo Polanco de Teruel as a university hospital. This is the agreement for the use of health centers in university research and teaching. From now on, the university hospitals include Lozano Blesa, Miguel Servet and Royo Villanova in Zaragoza; San Jorge in Huesca; and Obispo Polanco in Teruel.

The event was attended by the Mayor of Teruel, Emma Buj, the President of the Provincial Council of Teruel, Joaquín Juste, the Director of the Provincial Health Service in Teruel, Asunción Navarrete, the General Directors of the Government of Aragon for Universities, María Luisa Feijóo, and for Health Care and Planning, Ramón Boria, the Managing Director of the Aragonese Health Service, Ana Castillo, the Vice-Rector for Teaching Staff, Ismael Jiménez, and the Vice-Rector of the Teruel Campus, José Martín-Albo, among other authorities.

The health adviser, José Luis Bancalero Flores expressed his satisfaction that the province of Teruel has its first university hospitalHe explained that it was the General Directorate of Health Care and Planning that confirmed that the Hospital Obispo Polanco in Teruel meets the requirements. The counselor stated that this accreditation will promote the training of future professionals in Medicine and other Health Sciences, with the aim of increasing the efficiency and quality of the healthcare system. In this regard, he indicated that, in the medium term, university hospitals obtain better results in terms of quality of care.

Also, it's going to allow hospital professionals to have the opportunity to pursue a teaching-care careerIn this regard, Bancalero commented that, according to a survey carried out this year by the Department of Health, 62,5% of the professionals from this hospital who responded to it have expressed their willingness to teach in the future Medicine degree at the Teruel campus and nearly 40% have a doctorate or are in the process of obtaining it.

The Minister for Employment, Science and Universities, Claudia Pérez Forniés, stressed that it is "a very important historic day for Teruel." "With this signature, the Hospital Obispo Polanco is accredited as a university hospital, the first step towards the implementation of medical studies in Teruel," she stressed. The Minister emphasized that from now on, Teruel "is now a little closer to having its degree in Medicine," studies "that will strengthen the Teruel university campus, which is essential for the city and the province."

According to Perez Fornies, “Our goal is to retain and attract talent as a driving force for the development of society, capable of establishing the population and generating new opportunities.".

Unanimity

The monitoring committee for this agreement met on 25 November 2024 and unanimously agreed to carry out the accreditation of the Hospital Obispo Polanco in Teruel as a university hospital. The approval was also given to the linking of positions for Assistant Professors with clinical ties.

Once the Department of Health of the Government of Aragon has confirmed that the Hospital Obispo Polanco in Teruel meets the requirements to be a university hospital, which include having a certain structure and management bodies, a physical infrastructure for the development of teaching and research, and a sufficient set of services and care units, the hospital has been renamed and renamed.

For its part, The San José Hospital of Teruel and the San Juan de Dios Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center remain as centers associated with the University of Zaragoza.. According to the regulations, the term “university hospital” will be used when the agreement refers to the hospital as a whole or covers 75 percent of its services and care units. In the case that only some services are agreed upon, it is called a “hospital associated with the university”. The modification of the agreement between the Government of Aragon and the University of Zaragoza for the use of health centres for university research and teaching does not entail an additional cost charged to the budget of the regional government.

Current training activity

The Hospital Obispo Polanco in Teruel is hosting 108 students from the Teruel Nursing School this year. In addition, it has 46 residents in Medicine, Nursing and Clinical Psychology. Specifically, there are 34 residents in Medicine, in the specialties of General Surgery and the Digestive System, Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, Geriatrics and Family and Community Medicine; five in Clinical Psychology; and seven Nursing residents in the specialties of Mental Health and Geriatrics.

There are also years when it receives students of Medicine and Nursing from universities outside the Autonomous Community and even from other countries, who carry out their training rotations in the different services of this hospital. Occasionally, it has also welcomed students of other university degrees related to the health field, such as Physiotherapy, Pharmacy or Social Work. There are also agreements with educational centres to welcome Vocational Training students from the Nursing Assistant, Pharmacy, Laboratory, Pathological Anatomy and Radiodiagnosis cycles.

Source: Government of Aragon