Cancer patients will soon be able to return to the Hôtel-Dieu du Creusot (Saône-et-Loire) for treatment. The general manager of the SOS health group, on which the hospital depends, announces it exclusively to Why Doctor: the oncology department will reopen its doors “at the latest in the first quarter of 2021”.
- Le Creusot hospital is forging a partnership with another establishment to reopen its oncology department.
- He hopes to increase the number of chemotherapy sessions performed.
- An economic disagreement between two health establishments led to the closure of the oncology department at Le Creusot hospital.
Chemotherapy will soon return to Le Creusot (Saône-et-Loire). Closed last September due to an economic disagreement between two hospitals, the oncology department of the Hôtel-Dieu du Creusot will reopen its doors “no later than the first quarter of 2021”, assures us Mickaël Munier, the general manager of the SOS health group, on which the hospital depends. A reopening which will put an end to several months of hassle for patients who have to go to the Montceau-les-Mines hospital, a trip not without consequence for the people concerned.
An economic disagreement
The closure of the oncology department caused a strong reaction to Ghislaine Courrège, whose husband recently died of generalized cancer after suffering the consequences of this closure for many weeks. Going from 200 meters to more than 25 kilometers to get to his chemotherapy sessions, he had to multiply journeys which tired him, breathes his wife. “I am very angryshe tells us. It’s all about the money.” To make her voice heard, and those of other patients, she launched a online petition which collected more than 1,200 signatures.
Reminder of the facts: last September, the agreement between the Hôtel-Dieu du Creusot and the Sainte-Marie Clinic in Chalon-sur-Saône, which depends on the Ramsay Santé group and is authorized by the health authorities to prepare the pockets of chemotherapy, ended. The two establishments did not manage to agree on the terms of a renewal. In question, “an 80% price increase on chemotherapy products”, points out Mickaël Munier. On the side of the Ramsay group, the number 1 in private hospitalization in France, non-compliance with certain operating rules between reference center and associated center is advanced to justify the non-renewal of the agreement.
Do more chemotherapy
What is the solution that will allow the reopening of oncology at Le Creusot? “We have been solicited by establishments that have chemotherapy authorizations to restore the oncology departmentassures the general manager of the SOS health group. We are working on several avenues to reopen the center in the weeks or months to come. This will be no later than 1er quarter 2021.”
Ghislaine Courrège, she remains suspicious. “As long as it is not marked black on white, I remain very careful”, she insists.
This reopening should benefit many patients since approximately 2,000 chemotherapy sessions are carried out each year in the establishment. Mickaël Munier even hopes to inflate this figure. “We’re going to strengthen the oncology department. We can think that we will be able to carry out more sessions of chemotherapy each year. Alongside this, we have made recruitments in surgery which will allow us to develop surgical activity, in particular for cancers..”
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