Dr Jean-Yves GRALL, Director General of ARS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes announces the creation of a new unified Ardèche-Drôme Territory Hospital Group (GHT) based on a shared and structured medical project both around 6 care lines and an enhanced local offer. This GHT aims to concretely improve patient care and pathways
The development of this GHT is accompanied by an investment plan which, in addition to the projects already established, supports two new real estate projects of nearly 200 million euros for the renovation of the hospital centers of Aubenas (Ardèche) and Montelimar (Drome).
Objective and ambition of a regional hospital group
A territorial hospital group (GHT) is a system that promotes cooperation between the public health establishments that make it up, on the scale of a given territory. This cooperation takes place around a medical project shared between the member establishments, which aims to better distribute the care activities between the structures, to better organize the care of the inhabitants (in a gradual manner from routine local care to highly specialized and cutting-edge activities), to improve the quality and safety of care and, ultimately, to provide better care.
Since 2016, the departments of Ardèche and Drôme have been covered by two territorial hospital groups. To the north, the GHT Rhône Vercors Vivarais with the CH de Valence as a support establishment. To the south, the GHT Sud Drôme Ardèche with the CH de Montélimar as a support establishment.
Essential cooperation between all establishments in the Ardèche and Drôme departments for equal access to specialized care.
Today, it appears that access to certain specialized and very technical disciplines must be reinforced or even developed for the benefit of the 800,000 inhabitants of Ardèche and Drôme. The objective is to ensure fair access to quality care for all and to secure the management of urgent or serious illnesses such as strokes, heart attacks, cancers, illnesses requiring resuscitation.
For Dr Jean-Yves Grall, Director General of ARS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, “this strategy of providing broader care and this cooperation between health professionals can only be done through a new hospital group of unified Ardèche-Drôme territory with professionals who share the same medical project for the population“. It is in this sense that he had proposed to the establishments of the two previous GHT* to think about a medical project structured around 6 care sectors which could be the base of this new grouping.
*Excluding CH d’Annonay which is part of GHT Loire
A unified and reinforced hospital group, around the hospital center of Valence as a support establishment
After extensive consultation with the players in the territory, the supervisory boards of the 19 health facilities concerned have issued in recent days a unanimous favorable opinion for the creation of this new grouping which will be officially installed at the very beginning of 2023.
Thus, the hospital center of Valence, a support establishment for this GHT, and which has the authorizations to perform technical procedures, aims to strengthen the 6 referral channels by involving the medical teams of the 4 pivotal hospitals in Ardèche and Drôme — Montélimar, Privas, Aubenas and Romans:
- Cardiology acute will be consolidated thanks to a 2nd coronary angiography being opened. Concretely, it will make it possible to support more than 2000 patientsadditional who will not have to travel to the CHU of Grenoble, Lyon or to the south in Avignon.
- Acute Neurologywith a new authorization granted to carry out thrombectomies which will make it possible to increase the rate of recourse to this type of intervention for a part of the population, in particular in southern Ardèche, which benefited little from it because of the transport time.
- Oncologywith authorizations for PET scans and thoracic oncological surgery, which should result in a halving of the appointment time for a PET scan diagnostic assessment, avoid having to systematically travel to Lyon, Grenoble or Saint-Étienne for surgery and the various follow-up appointments while being able to benefit locally within less than an hour of chemotherapy care and all follow-up examinations.
- Maternity and perinatalitywith a level 3 maternity authorization (neonatal resuscitation) which may be granted under the new regional health plan 2023-2028. Concretely for families, there will be the possibility of giving birth in Valencia whatever the risk factors, in particular without separation of the mother and her baby.
- Emergencies and urgent transport: with the medical helicopter that can be mobilized 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, which benefits patients from both departments; it makes it possible to secure patient transfers with medical teams who are able to pick up each patient anywhere in the territory to repatriate them to the technical platform best suited to their needs. To consolidate the use of this SMUR heliportein both departmentsthe Director General of the ARS today validated the financing, by the ARS, of a SMUR line** dedicated exclusively to inter-hospital transfers with this helicopter based at the Valence hospital center.
- Adult and pediatric critical care: in particular with the modernization and increase in adult and pediatric resuscitation capacity, in the continuity of the organizations built during the management of the Covid19 crisis, should make it possible to avoid transfers outside departments of very fragile patients
This organization will also offer the advantage to all establishments of benefiting of a common information system : shared medical files, consolidation of tele-expertise, etc., which will make it possible to obtain even better monitoring of patient care pathways.
Under the impetus of the CH of Valence as a support establishment, each establishment in Ardèche and Drôme will have its place in the animation and life of these care sectors.
**An SMUR line, to operate 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, is made up of 4 to 5 doctors and 4 to 5 nurses (as well as drivers or pilots).
Local care organized and provided by hub establishments with greater autonomy
In addition to this recourse for acute specialties, proximity represents the essential needs of the inhabitants, in particular the care of the elderly. It is in this sense that Dr. GRALL wanted the autonomy of each pivotal establishment to be strengthened within the GHT, which provides this local care, each in conjunction with the establishments in its territory:
- Valencia CH with establishments in Die, Crest, Tournon, Lamastre and Cheylard
- CH Aubenas with the CH of the Cévennes Ardèche, Villeneuve de Berg, Vallon Pont d’Arc and Rocher Largentière
- Montélimar CH with Viviers-Bourg Saint Andéol, Nyons and Buis les Baronnies
- The CH of Romans with Saint-Vallier and Saint Marcellin.
Major real estate investments, supported by the ARS, which will make it possible to consolidate this strategy of local care and specialized sectors in the two departments
In the extension of the real estate investment projects planned for the hospitals of Die, Cheylard, Romans, Saint Vallier, Buis les Baronnies, Privas, Villeneuve de Berg, the ARS confirms today that it supports real estate projects for the renovation CH Montélimar which amounts to nearly 120 million euros and around 70 to 80 million euros for the CH d’Aubenas real estate project.
For the CH of Montélimarthis real estate investment of 120 million euros must make it possible to restore coherence to the site which has undergone numerous architectural transformations over the past 40 years and which brings together buildings that are sometimes very old and others more recent.
For CH Aubenasthis investment of 70 to 80 million euros will enable the establishment to have a high-quality technical platform for surgery and maternity, which will contribute to the quality and safety of care. It will also help to humanize the premises and thus allow a much more dignified reception of patients. Finally, it will make it possible to improve the quality of life at work for professionals and thereby their attractiveness.