The new Egalité santé association, promoting the unique surgical platform project in Rolampont, held its first meeting for members on Thursday, February 9. And denounces the empty hospital shell that is looming in Langres, after the choice made in December.
” Who are we ? Revolutionary Gauls? No. This association is only for you. And it is yours”. Dr. Véronique Midy (Fayl-Billot) knows how to have sharp words. Like a scalpel? More like a razor-sharp blade ready to shred the arguments of the Regional Health Agency (ARS). The co-president of the brand new Egalité santé association – which is part of the continuity of the steering committee (Copil) which carried out the single surgical platform project in Rolampont and now has 270 member caregivers – animated with warmth the first meeting of the structure, this Thursday, February 9, at the Maison du temps libre in… Rolampont.
The choice is obviously deliberate. And the message has not changed. The decision taken last December by the ARS with the support of the President of the Departmental Council Nicolas Lacroix – to build two new establishments in Chaumont, where the surgical technical platform will be located – is more than ever considered disastrous. “Mr. Lacroix had said that he would listen to the doctors, and that the politicians would agree with them. It was not the case. The decision to put the technical platform at Chaumont is a political choice, not a medical one,” says Dr David Bernard, from Langres, member of the board of directors of Egalité santé.
” I accuse ! »
“The ARS project is bad. The entire east and south of the department will become real medical white zones, ”adds Dr Vincent Escudier, head of the emergency department at the Langres hospital center, and stakeholder in Equality Health. Who, on Wednesday, was able to attend a meeting with the ARS. From which he emerged mortified: “There will be no more specialized medical services in Langres, neither laboratory nor surgery of course. We were told that, in this in-between period, it was no longer necessary to bring new medical specialists to Langres…”.
In summary, and as feared, there will be little more than an emergency service (a simple “sorting center” in the absence of surgery) and a few beds for follow-up care and rehabilitation (SSR).
For the Egalité santé association, Langres will therefore become an empty shell. And this is the point that caregivers intend to hammer home, insofar as the sweet words of “new hospital” have pleased the ears of their patients, they note in their offices. A distribution of leaflets in the Pays de Langres — entitled “J’accuse” — is soon planned in all households. For caregivers, therefore, the dawn of a struggle is looming which, everyone is warned, will not be abandoned.
N. C.
They said…
Chaumont in toddler mode? — So sharing (read above) the meeting with the ARS in which he took part, Dr Vincent Escudier, member of Egalité Santé, reveals that the new hospital planned for Chaumont could be sparsely sized: “Maternity should be designed for 500 or 600 deliveries. As for cardiology, there would only be about fifteen beds. In fact, Chaumont will be sized… for the center of the department. With cynicism, the ARS acts without saying it that the inhabitants of the south will never go to Chaumont”.
From the vague to the soul. — Dr. Didier Soumaire (Chalindrey), linchpin of the Equality Health association, informed the audience that Territorial Intelligence had discreetly inquired to find out if more energetic actions were soon planned by the association. Comment by François Mercey, former CFDT representative of the Langres hospital center: “They don’t want us to make waves? So, the question I ask myself is shouldn’t we make waves? “.
Resignations! Resignations! — Dr Midy evoked the hypothesis, actually on the table (but without any certainty) of the resignations of a certain number of city councilors from the Pays de Langres, as a sign of protest and defiance: “Perhaps around fifty… The 168 would be better, but I think there is at least one that won’t…”. Dr. Delong then grabs the ball: “Oh, we are not immune to a new change of mind…”. Her name was not mentioned, but it was Anne Cardinal who was targeted.
