THE territorial delegate of Equality, Health and Social Policies, José María Martín and Education delegate, Francisca Fernandez, visited the hospital classroom of Torrecárdenas Hospital.
The representatives met with the students for the new 2017-2018 school year and the centre’s four-person teaching team who are responsible for ensuring the educational needs of sick children.
Each academic year around 800 children receive care in the hospital classrooms of Torrecárdenas (Almería), La Inmaculada (Huércal-Overa) and Poniente (El Ejido). These kids participate in playful and informative activities, with the aim of promoting their intellectual and social development during their hospitalisation.
The Torrecárdenas Hospital complex has three distinct educational spaces: a classroom for children with oncological illnesses, another in pediatric kidney care and another for other kids admitted. Over the past year, these professionals have provided more than 3,000 educational services, benefiting more than 400 children.
José María Martín explained during the visit to the Hospital Torrecárdenas that “the classrooms of public hospitals in the province of Almería guarantee that the pathologies that force our children to be admitted and receive treatment do not interfere with their educational process.”
Martín also said that: “in addition to attending to their educational needs these classrooms organize numerous courses such as concerts, theatre performances, storytelling sessions, magic shows which helps to make care in the hospital easier, which in the case of children with chronic or oncological processes, can be very prolonged.”
The work developed in the hospital classrooms is part of the set of actions that are carried out within the Integral Plan of Attention to the Hospitalized Child from the Ministry of Health and is governed by a collaboration agreement between the Health and Education ministries.
