the essentials The Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieusecq, was visiting Albi this Friday, October 11. The opportunity to inaugurate the new emergency rooms of the hospital, which has doubled in size.
The inauguration of the new emergency rooms in Albi was well worth the visit of the new Minister of Health! Open since last June, they are twice as large as the old ones and have thus been sized for a capacity of 35,000 to 40,000 entries per year. Or 3,000 m2, which is enough to absorb the growing number of patients who present daily to the emergency room. The new building also includes two additional operating theaters and a new sterilization unit on the first floor.
The total cost of the work amounts to 23 million euros, including “14.5 million for the State as part of the Ségur de la santé”, recalled Minister Geneviève Darrieusecq. The big news is the installation of an airlock which allows better care of patients. Those on stretchers are thus taken care of independently of other patients. Those relating to psychiatric emergencies have specific premises and boxes are dedicated to children.
“Make health professions more attractive”
Some patients are also referred to the unscheduled medical consultation center, run by eleven retired doctors in the city center. A structure that the Minister of Health also visited on Friday. “A fantastic tool”, for the minister who calls “for emulation in the territories to give doctors the opportunity to work again”.
“This type of building which accommodates the new emergencies of the Albi hospital also makes it possible to make health professions more attractive, indicated Geneviève Darrieusecq. We must give emergencies their rightful place and stop having a negative discourse on the hospital. We must preserve these services.” And the minister emphasized that the health budget would increase by 9 billion euros next year.
As for Albi hospital, two other modernization projects still need to be carried out in the months and years to come. Initially, the restructuring of the boarding school, located within the hospital grounds with the delivery of around fifty studios by 2027. This will then be followed by the renovation and extension of the nursing home of the Renaudié which notably plans the creation of a new circular building.
