local hospitals that are less rigid than expected

It was the great fear of local elected officials, especially in rural areas: that their hospital center would become a local hospital, without emergencies or maternity, as part of the current reform (Ma Santé 2022 plan). In short, a “low cost” hospital. Especially since, in the summer of 2018, we announced the transformation
several hundred small hospitals …

“If we were able to talk at one time of 500 to 600 local hospitals in the long term, there is no longer any quantified objective”, now assures Edith Riou, head
from the “evaluation, models and method” office to the general management of the healthcare offer. “The idea is not to say that we are going to withdraw a maternity hospital or a surgical department to become a local hospital, but that local needs primarily concern medicine. The surgery activity is more ad hoc. “

“Vast humbug”

Above all, the administrative straitjacket is much more flexible than expected. “This reform is anchored in the
transversal project to reorganize local care. It provides national framework elements, but with a lot of flexibility so that the local actors take it up, ”continues the office manager. Finished the procedure decided in an office in Paris for a resolution initiated from the field. “The hospital centers voluntarily engage in the process, on the basis of a project proposed to the ARS. The files are ongoing, the process having been postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

But this new version of the reform does not convince everyone. Nicolas Sansu, mayor (PCF) of Vierzon (26,900 inhabitants, Cher), remains opposed to the transformation of the hospital in his municipality. “Since the Covid, the closure of services has stopped, but the reform is a vast hoax to remove surgical and obstetrical services,” he argues.

However, the financial gain linked to the transformation into a local hospital could encourage directors of small establishments to cross the Rubicon. The number of volunteers should be known by the end of the year.

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