On Wednesday November 13, a symbolic first stone was laid on the site of the future 3rd scanner at the Bagnols-sur-Cèze hospital. Different projects have been announced.
In May 2025, the 3rd scanner at the Bagnols-sur-Cèze hospital center should be installed in the brand new building currently being constructed at the entrance to the site. “Finally !” greeted Doctor Dimitri Dibo, head of the imaging department, on Wednesday, November 13, during the symbolic laying of the first stone of this new equipment “expected”. “The 3rd scanner is the result of a financial and human investment” underlined the director of the hospital Jean-Philippe Sajus. “Its cost is 850,000 euros, financed by loan.”
“When I arrived in 1987, the imaging department had two aging x-ray rooms, an old ultrasound machine that didn’t work…” recalls Doctor Dibo. “The first scanner arrived in 1991. Now, we have two MRIs, five ultrasound rooms, three radiology rooms, a senology unit, an interventional imaging unit and therefore three scanners. We have an imaging service worthy of the name!” and which will continue to evolve. “In 2025, we will renovate an MRI, an x-ray room and renew the image archiving and appointment booking system” and, he specifies, “we are going to start the administrative procedures to have a 3rd MRI because our machines are saturated. The times for making appointments are getting longer and longer“.
Creation of an imaging platform at the Pont-Saint-Esprit hospital
Another short-term project announced by the head of the imaging department: the creation of an imaging platform at the Pont-Saint-Esprit hospital, “with x-ray, mammography, ultrasound and scanner”. So much equipment that will meet the expectations of patients in the Gard Rhone region and beyond. “We have 75,000 imaging patients, 40% come from the departments of Vaucluse, Dôme and Ardèche” explains the department head. “Our catchment area is 190,000 inhabitants. There remains one difficulty to overcome: “We are facing a shortage of manipulators at the national level but we are adapting.”
“A 3rd scanner will meet the growing needs of this area” confirmed Wednesday the departmental director of the ARS (regional health agency) of Gard, Guillaume Dubois. “Implementing this type of equipment everywhere is one of the objectives of the regional health project.” Equipment that contributes to “the profound change in the hospital which is very important for the attractiveness of the territory” is convinced Jean-Yves Chapelet, mayor of Bagnols-sur-Cèze and president of the hospital supervisory board. To support this development, the city will also “make space around the hospital. We are working on the Plu (local urban plan)”.
Next step, the laying of the first stone of the new emergency rooms in Bagnols.
