“New Outpatient Surgical Unit at Emile-Roux Hospital Center in Puy-en-Velay to Improve Rural Access to Care”

The Emile-Roux hospital center in Puy-en-Velay will have a new outpatient surgical unit. The first patients are expected for the second quarter of 2026.

A recent study indicates that life expectancy is lower in rural areas than in urban areas. This difference is explained by the difference in access to care, which is more limited in the countryside than in the cities.

Over the past ten years, attendance at the surgery department has increased by 30%. In 2022, of the 11,300 visits to surgery, 7,000 concerned outpatients. They return to the hospital in the morning, undergo surgery and return home the same evening. But today, the service is cramped and this new unit should also reduce the waiting time, considered “indecent” in some cases.

4 new operating rooms, 6 wake-up stations

This extension project and construction of a new unit will take place to the right of the entrance. It aims to create 4 operating rooms, which will bring the number of operating rooms to 11 (7 conventional rooms and 4 ambulatory rooms). Around these rooms, a post-intervention monitoring room with a capacity of 6 beds will be dedicated to the ambulatory sector.

“Patients will have a dedicated circuit and will be welcomed in an area comprising 15 individual boxes and 19 armchairs”, indicates director Jean-Marie Bolliet.

60% of business comes from surgery

“60% of the hospital’s activity is carried out by surgery”, recalls Marc Bouiller, president of the Establishment Medical Commission (CME). Dr. Marc Durand adds: “Today, we can do major outpatient surgery. It is surgery of excellence that we have in Le Puy. With outpatient surgery, surgery does not change. What changes, it is is what happens before and after the operation.”

A project of nearly 10 million euros

This new unit project amounts to 9.5 million euros. The Region will mobilize 2 million euros directly and 2 million euros via the European funds it manages. The aid granted by the Regional Health Agency, which has confirmed its support, has not yet been established. “Our goal is to have modern equipment to attract caregivers,” said Laurent Wauquiez, chairman of the supervisory board of the public ponot hospital.

Work could begin at the end of 2023 for delivery in the second quarter of 2026.