Through Pierre-Yves Gaudart
Published on 31 Jan 21 at 16:32
–
News: In recent months, the idea of a single hospital between Dinan and Saint-Malo has sprung up after being buried. Why are you opposed to it after showing some interest in it initially?
Didier Lechien: I had felt that this question deserved reflection insofar as we must stop having to undergo certain decisions in matters of health. We have to imagine another hospital organization. But I am not in favor of a single site, in the open field, in the middle of a crossroads. The experiences already carried out in this area do not seem very conclusive, for example in the North because the hospital is kept away from the population. Seeing an establishment that employs 1,500 people (including ehpads Editor’s note) leave a city like Dinan is not trivial. And what to do with this vast site, then? What also about the private clinic which is a tenant of the neighboring walls?
Where would this unique hospital be located if it were to really see the light of day?
DL : We are talking about Pleudihen-sur-Rance, Châteauneuf d’Ille-et-Vilaine or Miniac-Morvan. But I will not support a large structure which certainly offers a plethora of care but loses a part of humanity towards the patient. It is a disastrous project.
What do you recommend then?
DL : The construction of a technical platform between Saint-Malo and Dinan. But the parallel maintenance of our establishments in their respective cities, because this meets a need. It is likely that that of Saint-Malo will have to be rebuilt, on site or elsewhere in town, because it is aging poorly. That of Dinan, on the other hand, benefits from an architecture still in the coup, fifty years after its construction. It just needs to be modernized.
You are therefore talking about a third public hospital rather than being satisfied with the current two or creating a single site. It must be very expensive?
DL : Yes, but we must take advantage of the recovery plan that would allow us to have the funding and to move upmarket in terms of health. I would point out that it is better to use the term technical platform because it is not strictly speaking a third hospital …
What would this new ‘hospital’ or technical platform consist of?
DL : All of this needs to be explored. But it would be equipped to respond to an increase in care in the health area (1) with a more efficient technical platform, multidisciplinary teams of doctors, which meets the demand of young practitioners. We would therefore treat heavier pathologies in a mutualized manner. Strokes, heart attacks, certain cancers. 80% of patients would continue to be cared for in conventional hospitals. This new technical platform would also have the advantage of relieving the Rennes University Hospital which, for our territory, will be called upon for even heavier interventions. What people want is fast care with full guarantees.
What are your arguments for this 3rd hospital?
DL : I would like to point out that this is a hypothesis which is one of the lines of thought on which the players in the healthcare sector will work. The other hypotheses are the single site, the status quo, that is to say the maintenance of the two hospitals in their current functioning – for my part, I am not in favor of it. It can also be mentioned the end of the hospital grouping of territory, an extreme scenario because I think that Saint-Malo and Dinan need each other. To come back to this 3rd hospital, this is an unprecedented formula. It is a way, for our establishments, to stop suffering from events, such as those which led to the end of childbirth in Dinan. The situation in the hospital is not going to improve instantly, because of the medical demographics. The expectations of young doctors are changing. We therefore need a less hospital-centered system, which brings together city medicine and hospitals for real complementarity: let us not forget that only one in two mothers would give birth at the maternity hospital in Dinan.
Who will decide on the future healthcare offer in the Rance Emeraude territory?
DL : The project is sufficiently structuring for the mayors to be in the loop even if they are not decision makers. It is about a territorial decision which also has the interest to leave a rivalry – often fantasized all the same – between Dinan and Saint-Malo. It is the Regional Health Agency (the State, in short) which makes the decision, on the basis of the directions given by the establishment medical commissions, the establishment technical committees, the establishment monitoring committees. (Didier Lechien chairs that of the hospital of Dinan NDLR), the user commissions. The independent report that was commissioned to assess the health needs of this population basin will likely help our choices.
How soon ?
DL : The decision can be taken quickly but it takes a few years for an implementation to meet the chosen scenario.
(1) Sector 6 which includes Saint-Malo, Cancale, Dinard, Dinan.
–
