Construction has officially begun on a new blood, tissue and cell donation centre in Malaga as the Junta de Andalucia continues work on its huge new hospital project for the city.
The new headquarters for the Malaga Transfusion, Tissue and Cell Centre is being built within the grounds of the historic Civil Hospital and will replace the current facility, which is set to be demolished to make way for the future Hospital Virgen de la Esperanza.
The project has been awarded to construction company Construcciones Sanchez Dominguez (SANDO) for €4.25 million and is expected to take 12 months to complete.
Andalucia’s acting regional minister for Health, Presidency and Emergencies, Antonio Sanz, said the work forms part of the wider transformation of healthcare infrastructure in Malaga.
‘We continue advancing the construction of the new Malaga hospital, which will transform healthcare in the province with an investment close to €600 million,’ he said.
The new centre has been designed by Dorronsoro Arquitectos and will sit on the corner of Avenida de Barcelona and Calle Velarde inside the Civil Hospital complex.
The standalone building will have three floors above ground and cover almost 1,756 square metres.
It will include donation rooms, staff areas, cryopreservation facilities, plasma derivative processing, quality control laboratories, advanced therapies units and blood component storage areas.
There will also be a separate space dedicated to liquid nitrogen storage tanks.
Part of the transfusion centre’s operations will also be relocated to Malaga’s Materno Infantil Hospital.
The Malaga Transfusion, Tissue and Cell Centre is responsible for managing the donation, processing, storage and distribution of blood, plasma, human tissues and stem cells across the entire province.
It supplies all hospitals in Malaga, both public and private.
Its services include blood donation and haemovigilance, processing stem cells for transplants, as well as operating tissue banks including bone, tendon, ocular, reproductive and umbilical cord blood storage facilities.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
