Merger of the Chtellerault hospital with the CHU: a perplexed former lab manager
According to the Regional Health Agency of New Aquitaine, the hospital merger in the Vienne has saved the care services of the Chtellerault hospital, like the laboratory. A former service manager reacts.
Brigitte Chardonnet worked as a medical biologist in the Chtellerault hospital laboratory for 31 yearsincluding eight years as department head.
retired since 2016, this pharmacist by training did another eight-month freelance in the service between August 2018 and March 2019, to, she says, “strengthen the team as part of the preparation for the absorption of the laboratory of Chtellerault by the CHU of Poitiers, the first step in the amalgamation of the rest of the hospital with the CHU”.
Three years later, she still has contact with her former colleagues and has kept an “attentive” eye on the functioning of the hospital.
She was struck by the words of the boss of the ARS
On January 21, while reading our newspaper, she was hit by the words of the director of the Regional Health Agency of New Aquitaine, extolling the merits of the merger with the CHU. One sentence made him jump: “Thanks to the merger, we solved Chtellerault’s problems with the biology department.”
For the ARS, the Chtellerault hospital laboratory is an example of these site services which were “and early” (1) in 2018 and which the merger made it possible to preserve.
However, in the opinion of Brigitte Chardonnet, “there were no problems when the absorption of the Chtellerault laboratory by the CHU was decided in 2018″.
Our laboratory was operating very well before the merger, it had obtained without reservation, in July 2018, its Cofrac accreditation, a quality criterion
Brigitte Chardonnet, former head of the hospital’s medical biology department, Chtellerault
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“Our laboratory was working very well, it had obtained its Cofrac accreditation without reservations, in July 2018, a quality criterion for all laboratories, she testifies. hospital, fulfilled its mission with the population. External consultation which is now in freefall. This absorption was intended to “save money“. However, we have never had the quantified results of these savings forecasts.”
Today, “to regularly need the services of the laboratory on a personal basis”, Brigitte Chardonnet notes that it “does not work better“. “I am not talking about the results of analyzes but about the operation.”
“Demotivation” in the ranks
“While there were three biologists on the site in 2018, there is now only one (more exactly two in timeshare)which does not even validate what is done – the validation is done in Poitiers – which can lead to delays in the provision of results to the care services, disempowerment of the biologists and technicians at the Chtellerault site”, advances- she.
The former biologist affirms it: the merger with the CHU has generated ” dmotivation” in the ranks of Camille-Gurin’s biology department. She asks the question: “Why undo what worked well?”
(1) The term appears in a press kit from January 2022.
The head of the CHU’s biology unit: “A level of quality of service at least equivalent today”
Professor Nicolas Lvque, head of the biology, pharmacy, public health unit at the Poitiers University Hospital, confirms that “the Chtellerault hospital laboratory was functioning perfectly before the merger”.
“There is no question of boasting: what was done in the Chtellerault laboratory before the merger was of very good quality… But I insist, what is being done today is at least an equivalent level of quality.”
The Poitevin virologist recalls that the merger of the laboratories of the CHU and the hospital of Chtellerault, at 1is April 2019, was carried out “with the aim of pooling forces, as was already done in many places”.
“This project was thought out by medical biologists, admittedly taking into account economic constraints, to guarantee the safety of the patient, and not to the detriment of the patient. This is an essential point!”
Professor Poitevin specifies the organization: “We left Chtellerault – and it was fundamental to guarantee the safety of the patient – the first line biology, the emergency (for the operating room, the maternity …) as well as a depot of blood and we postponed Poitiers all the analyzes that were not emergency and everything that concerned specialized biology “.
Thus, for these “complex” examinations, “the patients of the Chtellerault hospital benefit from the technical platform of the CHU and the expertise of highly specialized clinicians in their field”.
Still according to Nicolas Lvque, the laboratory of the Chtellerault hospital site today relies on “two biologists in shared time” (with the CHU) and “eleven technicians”; men and women “versatile, endowed with extraordinary expertise”.
“Four daily shuttles” (three on Sundays) – and more in case of emergency – provide “all year round” the journey to Poitiers, he adds.
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The management of the Poitiers University Hospital: “Ms. Brigitte Chardonnet did not know the new organization”
In a press release, the management of the University Hospital of Poitiers completes the words of Professor Lvque.
“Madame Brigitte Chardonnet exercised her rights to retire in June 2016, writes the management of the CHU. She returned to service for reinforcement missions within the team of biologists between August 2018 and March 2019, even before the merger of the laboratories of the CHU of Poitiers and the Nord-Vienne hospital group in April of this year 1. She has therefore not known the new organization of the laboratories in place for three years and has not exercised since the merger of the CHU of Poitiers and the Nord-Vienne hospital group at 1is January 2021. She did not take part in the efforts of the Poitiers University Hospital teams during the health crisis which also severely affected the organization of the activities of the biology laboratories.
Editor’s note: several times over the past three years, the CHU of Poitiers has highlighted in our columns the “benefits” of the merger between the CHU and the Nord-Vienne hospital.
>> READ. The last two articles to date, in response to criticisms formulated locally: a three-year assessment of the merger drawn up by the management of the CHU (our edition of November 22, 2021) and an interview with the director of the Chtellerault site (our edition of December 18, 2021).
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