At the end of Defly Street, emerging from a veil of greenery, St-Roch Hospital stands as a common landmark. The Italian classic style of the building features a spacious atrium as its main hall. Elementary school students from the neighboring school use its paths to reach Hôtel des Postes Street. Perhaps it is this intentional role as a “public place” that gives St-Roch Hospital its soul. A true multi-purpose healthcare center, its walls house both a polyclinic and cutting-edge heavy medical equipment.
Unfortunately, this all-in-one modern medicine facility now suffers from the strain of offering such a wide array of services. “Some patients from the General Medical House come back regularly and consider the hospital’s general practitioners as their primary care doctors,” explains Juliette Bellani, an executive associate. “A traditional neighborhood hospital might manage this kind of issue, but for an emergency medical center like St-Roch, it becomes complicated.”
Therefore, the staff of the Hospital Center must juggle its dual identity more than ever during this summer period when the hospital records a record attendance rate. Unlike the rest of France, Nice is relatively unaffected by heat wave-related issues: the city’s elderly population is well-acquainted with the heat and knows how to avoid its pitfalls. So why are there so many hospitalizations at St-Roch? Ms. Bellani tries to answer this question. “Firstly, because of the increasing number of tourists on the Côte d’Azur. Secondly, because summer is increasingly a time for municipalities and cities to organize events; add to this the World Cup football and other well-attended sports events. The result is clear: a significant increase in injuries from fights or merely accidents that occur.”
Another factor in the rise of injuries in 2006, and especially among the elderly, is the tramway construction. It might seem trivial, but it is not. It appears that the sudden change in the urban configuration due to the future public transport line has had unfortunate consequences on the safety of those over 75. The hospital experienced this firsthand, especially this winter.
Between fans who continue their match in the corridors of the CHU and patients requiring heavy and delicate surgeries, life at St-Roch is certainly not restful.
It may not be so in a few years. The “Pasteur II” project aims, among other things, to move the heavy medical services from the downtown hospital to a northern medical center: an extension of the current Pasteur Hospital. Thus, by 2011, St-Roch would transform into a simple public health service. Until the change of premises, the staff of the old building faces the same difficulties as all of French medicine: a severe shortage of nurses.
