Health and Coslada sign an agreement to support patients from the Henares region

The Community of Madrid, through the Regional Ministry of Health, the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS), and the Coslada City Council, have signed an agreement to improve the quality of life of patients through leisure and companionship activities in SERMAS health centers. The agreement, signed on September 16, 2026, is published in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid (BOCM) number 248, dated October 17, 2026, in section I.D) Announcements, with the official reference BOCM-20261017-5.

The text, which occupies pages 78 to 113 of the gazette, is signed by the Regional Minister of Health, Fátima Matute Teresa; the Vice-Minister of Health and Director General of SERMAS, Laura Gutiérrez Barreno; and the Mayor of Coslada, Ángel Viveros Gutiérrez. Its scope is currently limited to a single center listed in Annex I: the Henares University Hospital.

A program focused on unwanted loneliness

The purpose of the agreement is to assist patients who are admitted or who attend consultations, outpatient major surgery (CMA), or emergency services, as well as their family members and loved ones, with special attention to those in a situation of loneliness. The volunteer staff will be provided and previously trained by the Coslada City Council, which acts as a public volunteering organization under Law 1/2015, of February 24, on Volunteering in the Community of Madrid.

The planned activities are:

• Companionship through walks, conversation, and the “Patients’ Library” leisure activity, involving the reading of books in the rooms.
• Accompaniment within the center for patients who must attend consultations, tests, or outpatient major surgery on an ambulatory basis.
• Accompaniment in the Chemotherapy Day Center, providing support to family members as well.
• Library-cart service and accompaniment in the ambulance upon hospital discharge.
• Future expansion to other areas, such as palliative care or pediatrics, according to the needs indicated by the hospital.

Annex IV of the agreement specifies the deployment: it will begin with accompaniment in rooms and the Chemotherapy Day Center, with an initial incorporation of four volunteers, two per program, although the estimated coverage is around ten volunteers. The activities will take place during the morning, generally from 10:00 to 13:00 hours, from Monday to Thursday.

Training, insurance, and hospital control

The City Council commits to providing initial and ongoing training for volunteers, subscribing to an accident and civil liability insurance policy, and providing each person with a personal and non-transferable identification card. Annex IV details the itinerary: a preliminary selection interview, a 12-hour basic “Hospital Volunteering” course, the signing of a commitment document, and operation in pairs except in the case of experienced volunteers. The Coslada PIV has already delivered this basic course, in which 21 people participated.

SERMAS will define the access procedures to the intervention areas according to the clinical situation and the decision of patients and family members, provide a reference space for volunteering, and designate a spokesperson at the center, who will generally be the social worker. Volunteers will only attend to the patients indicated by the hospital staff, and their work will be complementary, without replacing or interfering with the work of healthcare professionals.

When the activity affects minor patients, a negative certification from the Central Registry of Sexual Offenders and Human Trafficking will be required, in accordance with Organic Law 8/2021.

At no cost to public healthcare and with a monitoring commission

The execution of the agreement will not generate financial obligations for the Ministry of Health nor for SERMAS. The Coslada City Council will finance the activities, with an estimated amount of 400 euros per year and hospital, VAT included.

A joint monitoring commission is created with three representatives—one for each signing party—which will be established within the first month of signing and will meet in December and May. The City Council must submit an annual report of the activities developed and their cost before May 15, and present its action proposal for the following year in December.

The term is four years from the signing, extendable by unanimous agreement for a maximum of four additional years. The agreement is administrative in nature and is governed by articles 47 to 53 of Law 40/2015, of October 1, and is excluded from Law 9/2017 on Public Sector Contracts.

The agreement comes after years of habitual collaboration between volunteer organizations and hospitals, a practice that the text itself recognizes as an effective improvement in the quality of life of patients. For Coslada, the dimension is primarily social, with citizen participation and a special presence of the youth population; for the Regional Ministry, the purpose is healthcare, framed within the humanization of assistance already established by Law 12/2001 on the Health Organization of the Community of Madrid. The agreement thus transforms an informal collaboration into a stable framework, with obligations, insurance, training, and annual evaluation, for patients who, in the words of the document, face hospitalization under circumstances of illness, physical limitation, age, loneliness, or distress.

Source: Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid, no. 248, of October 17, 2026, section I.D) Announcements, pp. 78-113 (official reference: BOCM-20261017-5).