NH joins the Apartments for Patients’ families program of the José Carreras Foundation

The José Carreras Foundation against leukaemia and the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona have established a collaboration agreement with NH Hotels. As part of the Social Action program of the Company, Up! for Hospitality, which consists in donating products and services to NGOs and Foundations, the hotel chain will facilitate a room at NH Porta Hotel in Barcelona, with bed and breakfast, to patients from the nearby Sant Joan de Déu Hospital and their families.

The room where the first family participating in the program has been accommodated, will be offered for short stays with the objective of helping the families of patients treated in the Haematology Unit of this Hospital, which will be evaluated by the Social Work Service based on their economic situation and the distance from their home.

The Paediatric Haematology Unit at Sant Joan de Déu treats between 350 and 400 annual cases; from which between 20 and 30% are displaced families who may need accommodation.

The José Carreras Foundation, 24 years fighting against leukaemia

Thanks to the collaboration agreement with NH Hotels, the José Carreras Foundation adds this new equipment to his Apartments for patients’ families program.

The José Carreras Foundation pursues an objective: that leukaemia will one day be a 100% curable illness, but also finds it very important to offer social services, and contribute to make the illness much more bearable for the patients and their families. For this reason, the Foundation has the Apartments for Patients’ Families Program, with 6 apartments near the main hospitals in Barcelona that perform transplants. Also, the Foundation has the Residential Transplants Program of the Clinic Hospital in Barcelona, the only one in Spain. It is an apartment very close by to the Clinic Hospital for cases where the patient has to undergo an autologous transplant and, despite living in the same city, doesn’t live close enough to be transferred to the hospital in time in case of an emergency. During 2011, 26 families have been accommodated in the Foundation’s apartments and they came from Barcelona, Gerona, Tarragona, Lerida, Orense, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Andorra and Peru.

NH Hotels, responsible company of the Tourism sector

Framed in its Corporate Responsibility policy, NH Hotels has launched an effective overall strategy of Social Action that enhances employee engagement, identifies opportunities and promotes a number of charity projects.

There are three lines of action defined in the NH Hotels Social Action Plan framed under the claim Up! for the People: Up for Opportunities, international training and internship program for young disabled people and at risk of exclusion in the hotels of Up! for Volunteering, Corporate Volunteering proposal and Up! for Hospitality, for special rates and donation of products and services to NGOs and Foundations, being an example of this, the collaboration with the José Carreras Foundation.

This is not the first collaboration of its kind, NH Hotels has been working successfully for over 8 years with the Fundación Menudos Corazones, by donating their hotel rooms in Madrid for families with special needs, with children suffering from a heart disease that were going to undergo an operation in the capital.

About NH Hotels

NH Hotels (www.nh-hotels.com) occupies the third place in the European ranking of business hotels. NH Hotels operates almost 400 hotels with almost 60,000 rooms in 26 countries in Europe, America and Africa. NH Hotels has 19 projects of new hotels being constructed today, which will mean 2,000 more new rooms.

About Sant Joan de Déu Hospital

The Sant Joan de Déu Hospital is a public health hospital and one of the leading names in the field of pediatrics and treats patients from all over Spain, what results in families of children living outside the province of Barcelona to have to be accommodated temporally close to the Hospital in case of admission or a consult, with the consequent economic burden it carries and that not all families can undertake.

To remedy this situation and help the families in need, the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital promoted, along with the Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Vall d’Hebron and el Mar Hospitlas, the creation of the Casa teva Foundation, where the José Carreras Foundation is also involved and more than 40 other entities. The first major project of this foundation is the creation of a Patient Hotel where families that have to move to Barcelona to live temporarily while their children are admitted, can be accommodated.