By Michel Moriceau
Published on 26 Dec 20 at 9:12
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While the city of La Ferté-Macé (Orne) est already confronted with the problem of medical desertification, the decision which has just been taken by the GHT (Groupement hospitalier territorial) des Collines de Normandie * is raising concerns.
“For more than 40 years, the hospitals of La Ferté-Macé and Domfront do not have their own laboratories, we have provided the various examinations for hospitalized patients and people admitted to emergency rooms: blood, urine and biological tests, explain Jean-François Moulin and Bruno Foucault, co-directors of the Andaines Synlab Normandie-Maine laboratory. This means that we provide a 24-hour guard service ”.
This collaboration was the subject of a renewable contract every 4 years by call for tenders. “As this contract expired on December 31, 2020, we worried a few months ago whether it would be renewed, explain the officials. When we met the director of the hospital group at the end of September, citing in particular economic reasons, he informed us that no new call for tenders would be launched and that the analyzes for the CHIC des Andaines would now be internalized in the laboratory of the Flers hospital. This goes against the Ségur de la santé, which advocates strengthening public / private partnership ”.
Between discontent and worries
This choice, which concerns around 70 cases per day (often with several analyzes per case), thus removes 8% of the activity of the Andaines laboratory “which will force us to review our organization, with the elimination of two or three positions. CDD ”announce the managers of the Fertois laboratory, who do not hide their dissatisfaction, but also their incomprehension and their concerns.
“By taking this decision to internalize this activity in Flers, we will extend the time to carry out the examinations and obtain the results,” note Jean-François Moulin and Bruno Foucault. If the director of the Hospital Group considers biological examinations relocated to the emergency room in La Ferté-Macé, we will only have 10% of the possible panel.
The risk is that in the event of significant health problems, patients will be referred more to the hospital in Flers. Hence our fear that in the long term, the drop in the number of admissions to the emergency department of La Ferté-Macé will result in its outright closure.
In recent weeks, the leaders of the laboratory have already sounded the alarm by informing local elected officials and parliamentarians of the situation. Contacts were made with representatives of the ARS (Regional Health Agency) in Orne and a letter was sent to the Ministry of Health.
“You can’t imagine La Ferté-Macé, and consequently all of the Southern Bocage, without an emergency service. Especially since the population is already facing the medical desert. The fact of no longer having emergencies would also have an impact on the attractiveness of the territory for doctors and specialists ”.
Dissatisfaction
–Reached by phone, David Trouchaud, director of the Hospital Group, indicated that this decision was part of an increase in the cost of GHT.
“If there is indeed an economic reason, it is not the essential in this choice,” he explained. There was some dissatisfaction, not with the quality of service, but with the responsiveness of the laboratory in question to requests for analyzes in the afternoon. This is why we have decided not to renew this contract and to internalize the activity at our laboratory in Flers ”.
This decision is accompanied by investments for the GHT. “We have bought three machines which will carry out the essential analyzes on site at La Ferté-Macé,” indicates the director.
Examinations that cannot be done on site will be sent to Flers. We have also recruited additional staff to provide shuttles between the two cities.
As for the expressed fears of those in charge of the laboratory for the emergency department of La Ferté-Macé, David Trouchaud wants to be reassuring: “I can understand that the leaders of the laboratory are disappointed not to have their contract renewed, but it is not a reason to say anything. If we bought three machines for the La Ferté-Macé site, it was to make them work. The laboratory at Flers hospital provides quality service and everything will be fine ”.
As for Vire, where the GHT hospital works with a private laboratory whose contract runs until the end of 2021, “we will study the question when the time comes, but we do not encounter the same concerns with this laboratory as ‘with that of La Ferté-Macé ”concluded the director.
* The GHT (Territorial Hospital Group) of the Collines de Normandie brings together : Monod de Flers hospital, Vire hospital, Andaines La Ferté-Macé / Domfront hospital center.
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