The surprise visit, Saturday February 10, of the new Minister for Health Frédéric Valletoux and his supervisory minister Catherine Vautrin to the Beaugency hospital center (Loiret), in the middle of a medical desert, raised renewed hope among the population.
The reason ?
The promise made by Catherine Vautrin to allocate, by spring, a budget of 1.9 million euros dedicated to the installation of a new wing, the renovation of an old building, the creation of a dialysis center and the installation of new equipment “for better reception of patients”.
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Jacques Mesas, the mayor of this town of 7,600 inhabitants and president of the supervisory board of this small health establishment, is delighted that “the State is making such an investment as part of its Ségur de la santé”.
In his eyes, this aging hospital “undoubtedly needed to be restructured”.
A doctor from the neighboring town of Meung-sur-Loire would have been approached to set up the future dialysis service.
“The medical desert, we know what it is!
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Leaving the hospital where she was visiting a relative, Isabelle, a young retiree, greets “this good news with relief”.
She, who did not have an attending physician, feared “that the hospital would sooner or later be doomed to disappearance” and that patients would have to retreat to Orléans for treatment.
“Here, we have known for years what the expression medical desert means.
It’s not theoretical, we live with it,” she admits.
For their part, the unions make no secret of their disbelief.
“At this stage, for us it is more of an announcement than a project.
Management has still not communicated anything to the teams,” says a union source at Sud Santé.
“Their reality at the moment is more about maintaining activity with fewer resources.”
To date, the mayor confirms that the work has not started.
The management of this small hospital did not respond to our requests.