No more patient beds in the corridors and missing toilets in the rooms or almost… We will still have to wait a few years but the project to rebuild the hospital in Alençon is finally taking shape. The management of the hospital, the director of the Regional Health Agency (ARS), the president of the Normandy region and the elected officials met this Friday, January 14 to detail the deadlines to come until the opening of the new site.
A sizeable budget
First information revealed, the cost of the site. He wakes up at 160-175 million euros, according to the latest estimates.
A budget in which the Normandy region actively participates with 60 million euros of contribution, even if health is not supposed to be the responsibility of the regions.
The State is the other main funder with 73 million euros released as part of the Ségur de la santé, launched in 2020.
Location search in progress
However, the address of the new hospital is not yet known. And the only proven information for the moment and thatit will not be in the same place as the current hospital center.
As for the precise location, it will be necessary to wait for March and the last field studies to find out, even if all the actors already specify that they want a place easily accessible to the Alençonnais.
Jérome Le Brière, director of the Alençon-Mamers hospital center, also insists on the importance of making this place accessible to liberal doctors so that they can come and work there.
A busy program
We will also have to wait a bit for the start of construction: it is planned from 2024.
In the meantime, we will have to find an architect, imagine this new establishment in collaboration with representatives of caregivers, users and partners.
Even if we already know about certain new features planned, such as the creation of a unit for short geriatric stays to relieve congestion in emergencies or the modernization of a medical imaging service with a Tep Scan, a state-of-the-art tool.
Other steps such as building permit applications, calls for tenders, etc. will take time upfront. And it will be necessary, once construction is complete, to fit out all the new premises, which will be done in stages.
All of this will take time and the opening is therefore planned for 2029, even if the mayor of the city, Joaquim Pueyo, already indicates that he wants to shorten the deadlines.
– Region/ARS
Last another 7 years
And while waiting to invest in these new premises, we will have to that the old ones remain alive. “We have a 94% obsolescence rate, recalls Jérome Le Brière, director of the hospital, with, for example, medical departments which sometimes only have one or two toilets per floor and not one toilet per room“.
A poor general condition that requires regular investments. “In particular, we are financing a new fire system, explains Thomas Deroche, the director general of the ARS, and we will continue to support the hospital throughout the transition period.”