“Some have dreamed of this for more than half a century, and today we are making it happen,” declared Christian Estrosi, Deputy Mayor of the city of Nice. Lenval, the children’s hospital, will become the sole facility for emergency services, consultations, and pediatric hospitalizations in Nice. Thanks to an iron will, this consolidation will be “the only pediatric center between Marseille and Genoa,” continued the President of the CHU council. Since 1970, the project has been awaiting approval, a fact confirmed by Pierre Costa, the President of the Lenval Foundation: “the city of Nice had committed to materializing it, but it never did.” It was only at the end of October 2008 that the Lenval Foundation and the CHU of Nice’s Boards of Directors were able to agree. For the first time in France, two facilities of different statuses (one private, the other public), will handle the hospitalization of young patients and bill directly for the corresponding services, notably to health insurance. The terms of this union are unique. They aim to develop both in the missions of caring for sick children and from the standpoint of teaching and research.
A three-stage transformation
This consolidation will occur in three stages. The first should take place during the first half of 2009 with ENT, ophthalmology, and ambulatory surgery, which should only be located at the children’s hospital. “Lenval will become the unique site for emergency services,” shared Christian Estrosi, but also other units, except neonatology and hematology. For the final part, it will be about 3 years before the “Mother Gynecological-Obstetric” activities emerge. This will be a Women’s Center where “mothers, children, and adolescents” will be cared for within the framework of the public hospital service. As soon as the premises allow, the public maternity, neonatal medicine, and hematological-oncology will be transferred.
Thus, “the Nice CHU-Lenval Pediatric Hospitals group will become the reference establishment for pediatric care.” But while the focus is on the project which is ambitious and innovative, as Christian Estrosi reminds us: there is “only one cause to serve: that of the child.”
