Dates, beds, parking, cost… The ten things to know to understand everything about the new CHU project

In the middle of an agenda vampirized by the news of the Covid-19, Prime Minister Jean Castex was in Nantes this Friday noon to lay the first stone of the new Nantes University Hospital. This large public hospital, whose earthworks have just been completed, will be built on the island of Nantes, facing the Loire, at the foot of the Pont des Trois-Continents. Are you unfamiliar with the subject? Here are the ten things you need to know to understand everything.

1/ It will bring together three of the nine CHU sites

Many people from Nantes are unaware of this, but the Nantes University Hospital is now split up into 9 sites in Nantes, Saint-Herblain and Carquefou. The future establishment will combine the activities of three of them in one place: the Hôtel-Dieu, the Mother-Child Hospital and the Nord-Laënnec Hospital. “We were in a medical situation in which the 80,000 emergencies taken care of by the CHU were carried out at the Hotel-Dieu while certain services, such as cardiology and neurology, are at the other end of the city. It is a problematic situation which could not last, ”said Philippe El Saïr, director of the Nantes University Hospital.

2/ It will open its doors quite late

Long announced for 2026, the new hospital will not open before 2027, authorities have announced. The calendar has indeed been delayed by the procedures related to the choice of companies, justifies the State. The structural work, which will last four years, will start in June. Before that, it will be necessary to install the base camp for the workers since no less than 1,200 professionals are expected at the height of the construction site. Mentioned for more than fifteen years, the CHU was even initially to open, in two stages, from 2023.

3/ It will not exceed six floors

Unlike the buildings of the Hôtel-Dieu and Laënnec, the future CHU will be resolutely low, six storeys maximum. Open and spread out, it will consist of 13 blocks linked by footbridges and walkways. The central building, which will house the operating theatres, will be the largest but also the lowest (three floors). Several surfaces are modular. A bare parcel is also kept to meet a need for expansion.

4/ Rooms will no longer be shared

If the current premises are considered “aging” or even “dilapidated”, the equipment and furniture of the future CHU are announced as “ultramodern”. An expenditure of 110 million euros will be devoted to them. All departments will have natural light, including emergency rooms. Shared rooms will be in the large minority (10%) whereas they represent two-thirds of the offer today. “We will have a considerable leap both for the working conditions of professionals and the reception conditions for patients”, assures Philippe El Saïr.

5/ It will be very very expensive

The total amount of the project officially amounts to 1.24 billion euros, including more than 110 million euros of new appliances and furniture. The State undertakes to provide 400 million euros. The rest will be financed by the CHU, either by bank loans (about 400 million euros), or by its own funds (400 million also). This last point includes the sale of unused plots on the Laënnec site for an amount of approximately 30 million. The hospital also hopes to make significant savings with the single site (shared trays, fewer ambulance transfers).

6/ There will be fewer beds than today

This is one of the main complaints addressed to the project by the opponents: with a total of 1,436 beds available in the new hospital, the capacity will be reduced by at least 65 beds compared to today. This choice is explained by the announced development of outpatient care (day care). This figure could have been even lower if the management of the CHU had not finally decided last summer to create 192 additional beds in geriatrics. Not enough to reassure the unions who believe that the management is going “straight into the wall” given the population growth.

8/ A huge car park and trams

To park at the future CHU, 3,000 parking spaces will be integrated in the basement of the buildings, ie a thousand more than today. Nantes Métropole will add an underground public car park with 650 spaces. Three new public transport lines on their own site must also be put into service from 2027: two trams and one busway. They will serve Quai de la Fosse, Rezé, Bouguenais and the west of the island of Nantes.

7/ Students will have to wait

Currently located along the Hôtel-Dieu, the health faculty will be set up in 2029 near the new hospital, opposite the Béghin-Say factory. The new building will bring together all the health sectors, with the exception of 1st and 2nd cycle Pharmacy and the first year of medicine. Eleven paramedical training institutes (nurses, speech therapy, orthoptics, etc.), currently dispersed, will also join together. No less than 7,000 students will be grouped together.

9/ Opponents still hope to prevent it

Despite the progress of the stages and the exhaustion of the possibilities of appeal, the opponents continue to think that the project can be stopped. They therefore continue their mobilization and bet, in particular, on possible difficulties in the financial arrangement, even on the disappointments of the site given the nature of this soil on the banks of the Loire. “Funding is extremely solid”, assures the director of the CHU. Things are irremediable, ”even warned Jean Castex this Friday.

10/ The current buildings could remain

Once the transfer is complete, a large part of the Hôtel-Dieu site is destined for demolition. And while most observers imagine housing on this site ideally placed in the city, the mayor of Nantes has let it be known that she rather envisages the development of a “nurturing park”. The oldest part of the buildings could however be kept, as well as the chapel. In Saint-Herblain, the Laënnec site will keep hospital beds for the elderly. A local consultation center should also be set up.