La maternité de Ganges a fermé en décembre 2022. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON
Santé environnementale, vieillissement de la population, accès aux soins… Didier Jaffre, directeur de l’agence régionale de santé a présenté ses grandes priorités pour l’année 2025 dans la traditionnelle cérémonie de voeux, ce mercredi 29 janvier 2025.
“The first challenge is demographic, the second is climatic” : on the occasion of the New Year's ceremony, this Wednesday, January 29, Didier Jaffre, director of the regional health agency, set out the broad outlines of the State's action in the region for the year 2025, in terms of health.
In an Occitanie “on the front line facing climate change that is disrupting care”, and at the same time which “is aging” and which “is gaining 50,000 inhabitants per year”, with an expected differential of “+ 1 million between 2040 and 2050”, the ARS is on several fronts. Economic files and structural projects are on the table, around a “mantra”: “Let's move”.
Flu epidemic: white plans still active
“We started the year with high tension in healthcare establishments”, recalls Didier Jaffre, who points out that “most people hospitalized are not vaccinated”. “White plans” or “hospitals under tension” are still active today “at the Toulouse University Hospital, at the Alès and Rodez hospitals”. Without cancellations. At the beginning of the week, the vaccination campaign was extended until February 28.
In Occitanie, only 39.7% of those over 65 are vaccinated against the flu, and 34.4% of people considered “at risk”.
A TFA search campaign in Salindres
“We are launching a campaign to measure TFA levels in drinking water in Salindres”: five days after the publication of an investigation by the magazine Que Choisir and the NGO Générations futures on the massive presence of trifluoroacetic acid, a perennial pollutant from the PFAS family, implicated in the appearance of cancers, thyroid problems, cardiovascular disorders, in 96% of drinking water samples taken in 30 French municipalities, the ARS is taking the initiative.
In 2024, it had launched an exploratory campaign on the presence of 20 PFAS via 326 samples, “3 non-conformities called for management measures”, recalls Didier Jaffre.
The Solvay chemical plant in Salindres has already been singled out by an investigation by the NGO Générations futures, published in February 2024, which revealed abnormally high levels of TFA in drinking water.
Beyond that, the quality of drinking water involves 40,000 checks per year in Occitanie, according to 330 parameters, at 15,000 catchment points.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The ARS “also intervenes on bottled water”, Didier Jaffre emphasizes. Last December, the publication of a report by the agency on the quality of resources at the Perrier site in Vergèze had the effect of a bomb: it revealed “unacceptable occasional bacterial contamination for a natural mineral water” .
A parliamentary commission of inquiry is now targeting the Nestlé Waters group, owner of Perrier, to “shed light on the practices of bottled water manufacturers”. The Gard prefect and the director of the ARS will be interviewed on February 6.
“Nestlé's authorization request is currently being examined, the Gard prefect will make his decision in 2025”, confirms Didier Jaffre, who specifies that the ARS has “assigned a hydrogeologist” on the subject, at the prefect's disposal.
Dengue, chikungunya, zika: 180 preventive treatments in 2024
Epidemiological surveillance “is being strengthened each year” on emerging diseases, another major environmental health issue.
The 2024 report ends at 152 imported cases and 5 indigenous cases of dengue fever, 2 imported cases of chikungunya, and one imported case of zika. In this context, 180 preventive treatments against diseases transmitted by the tiger mosquito have been deployed.
Aging population: “Everything is being done to ensure that no nursing homes close”
“Everything is being done to ensure that no nursing homes close”, insists Didier Jaffre, after “72 million euros have been allocated to the nursing homes in greatest difficulty”, in 2024. To be added to the 40 million euros injected into 38 modernization projects.
A Senate report, published in September 2024, reports that 66% of nursing homes are in deficit in 2023.
The 820 nursing homes in Occitanie, which have a total of 60,814 places, have all been inspected, specifies the ARS, which “will continue” its inspections in 2025: “53 appointments are already scheduled”.
Access to care: Mobisanté in Lozère, dental bus in Gers, Dalia in Aude and Aveyron…
“The end of the numerus clausus, in 2020, will bear fruit from 2026”, assures Didier Jaffre.
In the meantime, health centers (358), advanced practice nurses (252), and professional coordinations are being set up to guarantee access to care, which remains unequal.
Among other initiatives: the Mobisanté of Lozère, with professionals present once a month in villages far from care, and the Dalia, which brings liberals closer to patients suffering from chronic diseases in Aude and Aveyron.
Investments: “The new Ganges clinic will be built with a maternity”
The construction site was due to start in the fall of 2024, for delivery in 2026, “it has not been delayed”, says Didier Jaffre, when asked about the reconstruction of the Ganges clinic, one of the highly anticipated projects of the coming years.
The director of the ARS confirms that the new private establishment (Cap Santé group), supported to the tune of 11 million euros by the ARS “will have a maternity ward”. The one at the current Saint-Louis clinic closed on December 19, 2022, a trauma for the population.
“A building permit has been filed, it is currently being examined, there is indeed a maternity ward, and it is also necessary to be able to perform IVGs”, insists the ARS. All that remains is to attract a gynecologist and a dedicated team on site.
On the other projects, among “67 real estate projects”: “There are six major projects, on the Toulouse and Montpellier university hospitals, in the hospitals of Auch, Montauban, Tarbes-Lourdes and Millau-Saint-Affrique”.
Of the 1.6 billion euros of investments to be deployed in Occitanie as part of the Ségur de la santé, “755 million have been consumed”.
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