“The Nîmes University Hospital has nothing more to prove in terms of university hospital matters”: Frédéric Rimattei, the new director, takes stock of the many projects

Frédéric Rimattei, new director of the Nîmes University Hospital, who arrived in May 2023: “I have an atypical background”. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

Appointed head of the University Hospital in March 2023, after the ouster of his predecessor, Frédéric Rimattei, the new director, takes stock of the challenges facing the University Hospital: the many new projects, employment, research, etc.

You arrived at the CHU in a complicated context after the brutal ouster of Nicolas Best, suspected of financial misdeeds. What was your first impression? ?

I found here a team that had not lost its dynamic, enthusiastic people, despite the context. There is a strong identity here, a very strong attachment to the work tool and the concern for its future. That really struck me when I arrived. But there was also a concern about the situation, about the risk that the projects would stop while for twenty years, the site has continued to grow.

What did you think of the site exactly? ?

I found a university hospital in working order, which functions well, with a critical size to have recourse activities, cutting-edge services, territorial coverage, a high-level training offer, and highly dynamic research. And at the same time, it has retained real flexibility and agility to adapt and evolve.

Why do you think you were chosen??

I think Nîmes trusted me for three reasons: with my professional background (see box), I have real experience in project management. The Nîmes University Hospital is known nationally for its great vitality and exceptional dynamism in terms of projects. I am very attached to research, innovation and training. Finally, the work of co-steering the medical and administrative aspects of the hospital, it has been a long time since directors decided alone, I like us to decide together.

What do you think you can bring to the University Hospital ?

My fairly rich experience in the university hospital world: I bring the best of what I learned from the three other university hospitals where I worked; a reflection on research and innovation which is still my professional DNA and my ability to lead a group and manage projects in a partnership manner.

I brought two subjects to the national level within the framework of the conference of general directors of university hospitals: the environmental footprint of establishments (CSR) on which I can help the university hospital to be more strategic and more visible so that it is at the forefront; and the university education of paramedical professions, an important point for their future.

Michel Prudhomme, president of the Medical Commission of the Establishment (CME) and Frédéric Rimattei, the director of the CHU “very attached to a medical-administrative co-piloting”. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

Your predecessor was a building director. Are you taking up the projects that you launched again ? What will yours be ?

Of course, we will continue the projects that we have started, especially since they were very well designed. In addition, the CHU is financially balanced, which is quite rare at the national level. The investment plan will therefore continue, but our challenge is also to prepare for the future in view of the exploding demographics.

Thus, with funding obtained under the Ségur de la Santé, the Gard Cancer Institute (ICG) is already undergoing restructuring within the building. Medical oncology is increasing from 14 to 20 beds. We will maintain the outpatient department on the ground floor, move hematology-oncology up to the first level with 4 additional beds for critical care. And on the second level, we will install medical oncology, which has already increased from 14 to 20 beds. This redevelopment will be delivered in September 2025. For the end of 2026, we plan to extend radiotherapy with two additional bunkers. The ICG is fortunate to have all cancer therapies gathered on the same site, which is an exception at the national level. Finally, a new extension of the building of 8,000 m2 is under study, which will not see the light of day before 2030, but it is already budgeted. And we are working in conjunction with the Montpellier Cancer Institute.

For chronic diseases, a project also funded by the Ségur, towers C and D will be restructured within three to four years to accommodate medical specialties, endocrinology, internal medicine, rheumatology and a day hospitalization platform for medicine…

The interventional endoscopy center, whose construction began at the entrance to the Carémeau site, will be delivered in over a year.

Another project, pediatrics, which in the Gard region relies almost exclusively on the CHU. It is currently poorly set up, the idea is to create a real children's hospital that will be installed in pavilion 3 (opposite the medical center). We are currently drafting the medical project, but this should not be completed before 2030.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

The Maison de la femme opened its doors in December and will be inaugurated in February. It offers a 250 m2 reception area on Carémeau for women victims of violence with a one-stop shop to access a complaint, lawyers, associations, emergency accommodation, consultations on health and sexual violence, etc. Located in pavilion 3 bis, it is open 4 days a week. We obtained funding of €250,000 from the ARS. The challenge is to supplement it with private funding and patrons.

Bio express

At 48, Frédéric Rimattei (born in Paris but who spent his entire youth in Marseille), likes to say that he has “an atypical career path for a university hospital director”. After studying management at Essec and working in the private sector (publishing, financial auditing, etc.), “I asked myself the question of values ​​and meaning at work, I wanted to work for public service. He will have experience in Michel Barnier's office, when he was European Commissioner, and at the United Nations on sustainable development and environmental footprint, before the hospital. It will first be the Montpellier University Hospital for seven years, then Toulouse, then general director in Rennes before Nîmes.

What do you plan for the regularly congested emergency rooms ?

The initial project will be expanded to address the difficulties encountered by the emergency department. We will devote not the initial €5 million to it, but three times more with €15 million put on the table with delivery within a few years. Even though the department had already been renovated recently, it is incompatible with the volume of patients received, which has doubled (between 280 and 300 visits per day). We also need to rethink the routes for greater performance and connection between the different departments. But these are complex works that will be done on an occupied site.

Among the major projects, the restructuring of the emergency services, a budget of €15 million. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

Do you experience recruitment difficulties?? Do you feel a change in the relationship to work??

The CHU remains attractive with 6,000 non-medical professionals and 1,000 practitioners. Last year, the CHU recruited a thousand people, which would not be possible if it were not attractive. And we created 100 jobs. We close very few beds seasonally and very few also due to a lack of staff. But we have put in the resources, there is an excellent medical faculty that tops the national rankings and within the CHU we promote professional promotion, training, qualifications…

The sector in which we are having the most difficulty is that of radiographers, there is a big pay gap with private practices. The younger generations no longer want to work in a compartmentalized manner and be able to work in MRI, scanner or radiotherapy. We need to think about it.

On research and innovation, what are the projects ?

Here, we have a special system called the Pari (Research and Innovation Support Plan) which is a specific feature of Nîmes. In fact, research is always a gamble! So that’s €3.5 million per year dedicated to research for structuring projects submitted at the national level, mobility grants for young researchers, internal calls for projects or to finance the innov’action trophies. In 2025, we will be evaluated on our research effort, we will share our results with the Montpellier University Hospital to work on our complementarities and identify our priority research areas.

Another great project, Gardener with Esban and the university which aims to study all the impacts and risks related to the environment.

We are going to sign a partnership agreement with Philips to work on the imaging of tomorrow. Only three university hospitals have signed this type of partnership: Rennes, Lyon and Montpellier. This means that we have the medical and clinical expertise in imaging, interventional imaging, interventional cardiology and critical care.

In psychiatry, an innovation that I am attached to is Hype France (for Help young people early) for the early management of borderline disorders that are underdiagnosed. Mental health was a major national cause, we are going to ensure that it remains a major territorial cause.

Has the Nîmes University Hospital made its place alongside the medical behemoth that is Montpellier? ?

We already share a university, which has national visibility, which is a strength and an opportunity. The Nîmes and Montpellier University Hospitals do not serve the same population areas. The Nîmes University Hospital has nothing more to prove in terms of university hospitalization, it has its own dynamism, its own referral activities, and very dynamic research. Two university hospitals 50 kilometers apart, that is no longer an issue. The challenge is to work in cooperation. We already have referral activities in partnership with Montpellier, such as interventional radioneurology for strokes, bone marrow transplants or heart valve implantation.

And we find ourselves on research. For example, we obtained a very good project with Montpellier, in conjunction with the Béziers and Alès hospitals so that patients have the same chance of being included in a clinical trial, therefore an innovative therapy, in these four sites. It is possible because there is a real state of mind of collaboration.

I subscribe to read the rest