A new vocation seems to be taking shape for the New ENT Hospital. Three new departments could be set up there: a unit for neurovascular diseases, a pediatric intensive care unit and a pediatric surgery unit. The project is currently under study.
With a view to decentralizing services, the Ministry of Health is eyeing the underutilized spaces of the New ENT Hospital in order to install three new departments there: a unit for neurovascular diseases, a pediatric intensive care unit and a pediatric surgery unit. This is all the more so since the ENT service is now also available in regional hospitals. This is what we learned from a source at the Ministry of Health. However, this project should only materialize if the local and global situation concerning Covid-19 improves further and this disease no longer represents a health emergency, specifies our interlocutor.
As the establishment welcomes fewer and fewer patients and the Covid-19 situation has improved significantly, the authorities plan to optimize the building’s potential. Very spacious, it has four operating rooms, twenty consultation rooms and an intensive care unit that can accommodate up to 20 beds.
In the new plan that seems to be taking shape for the New ENT Hospital, the establishment should return to its primary vocation by offering an otolaryngology (ENT) service, with the addition of the three new departments mentioned. Everything will depend on the evolution of Covid-19 because the hospital has fully played its role as an establishment dedicated to the treatment of patients positive for the coronavirus. The department is not thinking of getting rid of this asset and is monitoring the situation before making a decision.
According to the information we have been able to glean, the authorities will rely on the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning Covid-19. At the last meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee, held on January 27, it was decided that Covid-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern. A source at the Ministry of Health indicates that it is the emergence of a new variant that is most feared, because the sub-variants of Omicron, although more transmissible, do not cause serious forms of the disease in vaccinated people.
Built on the site of the former building of the same name, the New ENT Hospital was unable to fully perform the functions for which it was intended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Inaugurated in October 2019, the establishment was converted into a national center for the treatment of Covid-19 the following year. The ENT services were then transferred to Victoria Hospital as was the case during the construction of the new building.
