The Madrid City Council has announced that the Comprehensive Paediatric Palliative Care Centre (CAPPI), the first of its kind in Spain, will open its doors in the first quarter of 2027. It will care for up to 1,400 children aged 0 to 18.
The first paediatric palliative care centre in Spain is already under construction. It is called CAPPI (Comprehensive Paediatric Palliative Care Centre) and is being built on a municipal plot granted for 75 years to the porqueViven Foundation. The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, visited the site on Friday and confirmed that the opening is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
The centre is designed exclusively for children with incurable diseases and their families. It will be able to care for up to 1,400 users aged 0 to 18, as explained by the City Council. Construction began in July 2024 and is progressing well.
A respite for families
Almeida highlighted that, in the face of a diagnosis of a child's incurable illness, families will be able to experience the process "in a different way." The centre will have all medical and healthcare requirements, as well as areas for respite and psychological support. The mayor thanked the "generosity" of the Amancio Ortega Foundation, which is funding part of the project.
Mónica Cantón de Celis, general director of the porqueViven Foundation, emphasised that there are approximately 60,000 families in Spain that need paediatric palliative care and only 15% receive adequate comprehensive and multidisciplinary care. CAPPI aims to fill that gap.
Services and spaces of the centre
The centre will have 100 professionals and 400 volunteers. It will feature a day centre where bedridden children can stay while their parents work, and an integration classroom for non-bedridden children. There will also be a family respite space where families can leave their child for a short time to be cared for, allowing them to rest or carry out other tasks.
Additionally, it will offer complementary services such as psychological care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, music therapy, and aquatic therapy in a pool, as well as a library and playroom. The green areas will cover 5,000 square metres of the total 10,000 square metre plot, so that children can enjoy the outdoors.
For the residents of Madrid, this centre represents an advancement in paediatric healthcare. Until now, families with children suffering from incurable diseases had to rely on hospital units or travel to other countries. CAPPI will be located on a municipal plot, making it easier for families from the capital and the rest of Spain to access.
As a precedent, there are only paediatric palliative care units in some hospitals in Spain, but no independent comprehensive centre. CAPPI will be a national benchmark. The expectation is that construction will be completed by 2026 and that it will open to the public in the early months of 2027.
You may also like
