The association “Sauvegarde Hôpitaux Santé Hautes-Pyrénées” is organizing a public meeting against the single hospital in Aureilhan, on February 21 at 6:00 p.m. Others are to be expected.
José Navarro and Marie-Claire Delemotte, co-presidents of the association against the single hospital project, continue their fight. While the planned hospital in Lanne should be completed, the association still hopes to be able to slow down its construction. “We want to move forward very quickly,” they say. It is above all a question of mobilizing “before the administrative steamroller of the declaration of public interest” begins.
Created six months ago, the association already has more than 200 members. The petitions launched against the meeting of the hospitals of Lourdes and Tarbes would have collected more than 17,000 signatures, and will be given to the prefect.
For the representatives of the association, real consultation with citizens and elected officials must be carried out: “There must be a health democracy in this department”.
To do this, they propose the establishment of health foundations at the departmental level, regretting that the citizens could not be really consulted on this project. “It’s not too late to take ownership of this subject. We are engaging 225,000 inhabitants on a project that will mark their lives for 40 years!” say the members, who are at the initiative of a public meeting in Aureilhan on February 21. During this first public meeting, members of associations from territories or hospitals of the same type have been opened, should speak.
The elected representatives of the territory invited
At the political level, the association criticizes a decision taken without the elected representatives of the territory having been able to have all the elements, in particular technical: “The objective is to request an updated and complete file on the project” confirms José Navarro .
An invitation to all elected Bigourdans has been launched: “all 400 mayors of the department have received an email to keep them informed of our project”.
Through this Marie-Claire Delemotte hopes that they will help them to maintain the pressure, and to organize future public meetings on the territory. A meeting with the mayor of Barbazan-Debat is already planned in this regard.
The mayor of Aureilhan, who will be present at the first meeting in his town, could therefore be joined by other elected officials: “in particular those from the NUPES” says Marie-Claire Delemotte.
José Navarro remains confident: “if there are not enough elected officials at this meeting, they will be present for the next ones” he says.
Jeremiah Heins
