The Barcelona City Council has closed this Tuesday the nursery for workers of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, the only one of its kind within the Catalan health centers. The Horta-Guinardó district inspection went to the place at 10:00 a.m. and proceeded to close it alleging that they are not complying with a resolution since 2017 that requires its closure for not having a license or responsible communication.
The families, of about fifty boys and girls, have been informed mid-morning that they should go pick up their children and that as of Wednesday they will not have daycare services. “They have told us that they wanted to take the children out at 12:00, but that they have finally been able to extend it until 4:00 p.m.,” explained an affected parent. “We don’t know anything and we are on September 6… We don’t know who is right, but we are the ones harmed,” he added with dismay.
The Vall d’Hebron nursery is a historical service that has only been provided by this public hospital, for decades, and which was about to be abolished in 2013, in the midst of cutbacks. Finally, the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) agreed to the demands of the families and handed over the building where the nursery school operates so that it could be managed by the newly formed association of parents Associació Escola Bressol Hospital Vall d’Hebron.
However, in 2017 the Barcelona council urged its closure arguing that it lacked a license, but until this week the seal has not been carried out. Since the nursery they have not wanted to make statements. On the part of the hospital, they have been sent to the consistory and have added: “The hospital regrets that the decision may harm families.”
In parallel, as published The Objective, the National Police opened an investigation that led to the accusation, by the Investigating Court 9 of Barcelona, of a dozen officials of the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council for alleged crimes of prevarication and embezzlement. Among them, the manager and a former manager of the health center. From the nursery and the Vall d’Hebron Hospital they have not wanted to make statements.
As for the license, the file was opened in 2017 by the district when it had formal knowledge of the activity by the Education Consortium, although the nursery had already been known for years precisely because of the protests of relatives to prevent its closure. . According to municipal sources, the district made several requirements to the Association that owns the nursery to regularize its situation. “Since this has not occurred, this September we have proceeded to do what corresponds in these cases, which is to initiate the procedures of the seal,” they detail.
Given the concern of the families, the Municipal Institute of Education of Barcelona, responsible for the network of public nursery schools, assures that it will “collaborate” with those affected to inform them of the vacancies in public nurseries.
www.eldiario.es