The premises are new and bright. A few days before the opening scheduled for Thursday June 6, 2024, Bénédicte Dardé, project manager for the Ramsay group, introduced us to the new mental health day hospital in Deux-Sèvres.
Located just opposite the Inkermann polyclinic in Niort, this 400 m center2 is organized on two levels. “We have already opened a first Médipsy center in Orléans (in January 2024) and in Montreuil (in March 2024). We have planned twelve openings by the end of 2025”, specifies Bénédicte Dardé. The Ramsay group announces its upcoming establishment in Compiègne, Laval and Marseille.
“In the Niort region, there is a real need for mental health”
With a capacity of twelve places, the center can accommodate forty patients per day. “This is care for patients leaving hospital who need personalized monitoring to return to social life, or patients who need psychiatric support over several half-days or days”specifies Nadine Potier, director of the Médipsy center in Niort.
The Médipsy center will have a therapeutic kitchen.
© (Photo NR, Jean-André Boutier)
Patients will be cared for by multidisciplinary teams who will have at their disposal a therapeutic kitchen, an art therapy room, a conviviality room, etc. “The care work will be carried out partly in groups”, adds Nadine Potier. The center, which will follow a classic treatment pathway, also plans to use the functional transmagnetic resonance technique. “A device that works on depression and allows treatments to be reduced”says the director.
The arrival of this new private mental health center also echoes the difficulties of the public hospital in this sector. In June 2023, the unions denounced the shortage of psychiatric caregivers at the Niort hospital center which led to the merger of services and the closure of ten beds.
“In the Niort region, there is a real need for mental health”confirms Nadine Potier, who recalls that the Ramsay group responded to a call for projects launched by the ARS (Regional Health Agency) and specifies that the Médipsy center will not take charge of full hospitalizations.
A partnership with the public hospital
“Today, referrals are towards outpatient care to avoid hospitalizations. This is a real political and health issue. » This will not prevent public and private from working hand in hand. “A partnership will be built with the hospital”the center director has already announced.
Bénédicte Dardé underlines the importance of having bright premises.
© (Photo NR, Jean-André Boutier)
The opening of this new day hospital responds (in part) to an obvious health problem. “Mental illnesses affect a fifth of the population, or 13 million French people”says Nadine Potier.
15,000 people affected in Deux-Sèvres
In the department, Unafam 79 (National Union of Families and Friends of Sick and/or Mentally Disabled People) monitors these mental health issues very closely. Nadine Béal, the departmental delegate of this family association, sees the arrival of this new center as ” good news “. Especially since “psychiatry is currently in dire straits in the department with a lack of trained staff”, according to her. Today, Unafam estimates that 15,000 people suffer from mental disorders in Deux-Sèvres. “A figure which increased sharply after Covid, especially among young people. »
What is the Ramsay group?
In its communication, Ramsay Santé defines itself as “the European leader in private hospitalization and primary care in Europe” with 36,000 employees and 9,300 practitioners serving 10 million patients in 443 establishments spread across five countries: France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Italy. Considered by some as the “medical Netflix”, Ramsay makes defenders of the French health model based on solidarity and free care cough. In the meantime, the group has responded to a call for projects from the ARS (Regional Health Agency) for its installation in Niort. The Ramsay group is mainly financed by Ramsay Health Care (52.79%), an Australian private hospital group, and by Prédica (39.82%), the personal insurance subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole group.
