The device on a match day has more than 100 health professionals
The stadium also has forty assistance points to offer quick and efficient assistance in the event of an emergency.
In the last league match that FC Barcelona played against Cádiz, a man suffered a heart attack in the stands. Luckily, there was no misfortune, but in a thread on the social network Twitter, the doctor who treated the person lamented the weak medical device in the stadium and assured that if it had not been for the help of 061, that patient would have dead in the field. The doctor issued a warning to all clubs to get their act together when it comes to having protocols and health resources to be able to cover any emergency.
Barça, in this sense, has reported that it has a health operation to be able to respond to a health emergency in the event that an immediate intervention is necessary in the middle of a venue with an audience, such as the Spotify Camp Nou, or as they can be the rest of the Club’s sports facilities, the Palau Blaugrana and the Johan Cruyff Stadium. On match days, the Barça club activates a health device with more than one hundred professionals, divided into forty points spread throughout the venue, to offer quick and efficient care in the event of a health emergency, whether it occurs in the pitch as in the stands.
This device complies with decree 30/2015 of the Generalitat de Catalunya, which obliges sports venues to have a Self-Protection Plan (PAU) that establishes the health device that must be guaranteed on a match day, and that varies depending on the capacity of the facility, which in the case of the Spotify Camp Nou is over 99,000 people and is currently the largest stadium in Europe. This device must offer health care to the people involved in the game and the competition (soccer players, technicians, referees, etc.) as well as the members, fans, workers, the media and members of the board of directors and, in case it is a European competition, to members of UEFA. It is one of the most complete regulations in this field in the entire Spanish state and stands out for being especially guarantor with people. FC Barcelona has always used all the necessary efforts and resources to comply with these requirements, approved by PROCICAT, putting the health and safety of people who attend sporting events as a top priority.
Attention distributed throughout the stadium
Among the hundred professionals working in the health operation, there are medical, nursing, health technicians, coordinators and administrative personnel. This device is made up of FC Barcelona personnel, medical professionals contracted by the Club, specialists in emergencies, and personnel from the Red Cross and the ambulance service. In total, the device is made up of 1 service coordinator, a doctor responsible for the facility, 1 coordinating nurse, 1 operations coordinator, 5 care doctors, 16 care nurses, 1 device administrator in the central dispensary, in addition to the Red Cross made up of 1 coordinator, 2 nurses and 20 devices made up of a minimum of two people each. The service also has 4 mobile checkpoints made up of 3 technicians with Semiautomatic External Defibrillator (DESA), also known more popularly as DEA, in addition to a wheelchair and portable litter for the ambulance service; 12 health technicians, 2 for each of the 6 ambulances and 9 health technicians with the two electric carts on the field of play.
All this staff is located in the Stadium in about forty points, strategically distributed to guarantee a quick and efficient intervention. Some of the most important spaces are: a Central Dispensary, located at door 59, on the side of the Spotify Camp Nou, as a small clinic to attend to emergencies; 11 peripheral dispensaries distributed by the mouths of the Stadium; 6 ambulances located on the perimeter of the enclosure -five for Advanced Life Support (ALS) and one for Basic Life Support (BLS); and in addition, also a dispensary at the locker room level and two electric bunk beds on the pitch. All these spaces are equipped with several AEDs, and defibrillator monitors – more complete equipment, to perform high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation – that the toilets can move to any point in the Stadium.
In the event that the affected person has to be transferred from Spotify Camp Nou to an external health center, the reference hospital for adults is Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. For children it is the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu. And in the case of players, coaches and referees, as long as their vital condition is not compromised, it is the Barcelona Hospital.