After what was ultimately just a matter of ego and power, common sense has finally prevailed, and especially the general interest has surpassed the particular in which the various actors had plunged.
Pierre Costa, Honorary Prefect and President of the Lenval Foundation, and Emmanuel Bouvier Muller, General Director of the CHU of Nice, officially signed the agreement protocol allowing for the creation of the Women-Mother-Child-Adolescent Center.
The concluded agreement thus puts an end to the disputes that may have existed between the CHU of Nice and the Lenval Foundation. It offers, on this basis, the opportunity to jointly create a peaceful, coherent Women-Mother-Child-Adolescent Center with broad influence.
The protocol agreement, which received explicit support from the Regional Health Agency, was approved by the Board of Directors of Lenval and the Supervisory Board of the CHU of Nice after being submitted for advisory opinion to the bodies of both institutions: Medical Commissions, Works Council, or Technical Establishment Committee.
The statutes of the Lenval Foundation will, on this basis, undergo a significant revision to implement all the measures included in the protocol.
The objectives of this agreement are:
To strengthen the consolidation of pediatrics, facilitate the establishment of the Women-Mother-Child-Adolescent Center, embed the whole in the values of public service, and ensure the hospital-university dimension of the future Center.
To this end, both parties considered that transforming the experimental GCS into a healthcare establishment was not the appropriate solution. On the contrary, they decided to indissolubly link Lenval and the CHU of Nice.
The Lenval Foundation will now have a significant number of Administrators from the CHU of Nice, which will ensure a unified vision between the two institutions and the sustainability of their partnership. A representative from Lenval will also sit on the Supervisory Board of the CHU.
On these bases, which irrevocably commit the future of both establishments, new provisions are being implemented for the management of pediatric services:
The services grouped on the historic Lenval site will be managed within the framework of a Private Healthcare Establishment of Collective Interest (ESPIC) attached to the Foundation. The management of this establishment will be entrusted to a delegated Director, who will not come from either Lenval or the CHU but will be jointly selected by both partners. The delegated Director will be assisted by a Management Board with a strong medical majority.
A new building for the Gynecology-Obstetrics Pole and the Neonatal Medicine Units: the currently vacant Lenval lands, avenue de la Californie, will be acquired by the CHU of Nice, which will build the new building intended primarily for the Gynecology-Obstetrics Pole and the neonatal medical units.
In parallel, the SANTA MARIA Clinic, which was the real “wall” of the operation representing private interests, legitimate of course but opposing the public nature of the agreement, will be relocated to another site, in accordance with the decisions made by its bodies.
This arrangement, supported by healthcare establishments, allows achieving all the set objectives under good conditions, without compromising the statutory or contractual positions of the personnel currently involved in the operation of the consolidated pediatric services.
The current GCS will be transformed into a simple GCS of means to manage the cross-availability of medical and non-medical personnel that has occurred in recent years. For the future, each establishment will recruit its staff according to the rules applicable to it, but both partners have agreed to facilitate, whenever necessary, detachment measures.
