Barraquer Ophthalmology Centre
Patient Information
Medical Team
Teaching
Research Chair
Foundation and Social Area
The Barraquer Saga
Communication and Press
Dispensary Social Work
Barraquer Dispensary’s Social Work was born from the idea by Professor Ignacio Barraquer (1884-1965) that no patients were excluded from his private consultation because of their economic resources when he to left his job in public health. Consequently, he needed to unify within one single building all his ophthalmologic activity.
Until that moment, Don Ignacio was visiting and operating at the Hospital de la Cruz Roja, Barcelona in the mornings. He had been leading this service since the end of the Spanish Civil War as a continuation of the work previously started at the Hospital de la Santa Cruz. In the afternoons, he visited and operated in his clinic at Ronda San Pedro, which had two floors, the first one was used for consultation and the second one for hospitalization.
At the end of 1920, he decided to build a centre specifically designed for clinical practice and teaching in ophthalmology. This project was interrupted by the civil war, and it finally saw the light in 1941. On sight of the "occurrence" to build a clinic d exclusively devoted to ophthalmology in the district of San Gervasio -an area of villas and summer residences, extremely off-center from Barcelona where he had a flourishing and prestigious consulting- his colleagues at the time called him "crazy visionary," stating that no patient would go to a so "far" place. The passage of time demonstrated how wise this initiative was.
Since then, nearly half of the activity of physicians at Centro de Oftalmología Barraquer is devoted to this Dispensary or Social Entity. Through this service, patients who prove to have limited financial resources benefit from very low tariffs in medical consultation and they are exempted for payment of the surgeon fees in case of needing surgery.
In late 2008, within the Director Improvement Plan of the Centre, this Service moved to a more functional space, where it has new and comfortable waiting rooms, with a separate reception area, own services, high-tech equipped large consultation desks, as well as several exploration offices for technicians and clinical complementary tests.
Patients through the Dispensary Social entity, if their ocular pathology requires it, are referred to the consultations of the super-specialists of the clinic so that their case is cared by the best specialist and provide him with the most appropriate clinical or surgical treatment.
For patients who cannot afford even the reduced amount of the Dispensary, Barraquer family constituted the Barraquer Foundation, through which, after a personal interview with a social worker, the possibility is considered for the entity to cover a part or the totality of the treatment required by the patient. This continues the founder's original idea, that no one be left without being helped by Barraquer for any economic reasons and that everyone can have access to the first-class ophthalmologic care they aim to offer.
Download PDF>> Barraquer Clinic
