the essential
After a little over a year of operation, the multidisciplinary medical center was inaugurated this Saturday in the presence of numerous actors and speakers.
The journey was long and complicated, strewn with pitfalls, “it was almost a mental health journey” some would say, which took the entire team in charge of this project through different states and emotions. It will indeed have taken great persistence on the part of all stakeholders to bring this project to fruition. After a little over a year of operation, the multidisciplinary medical center of Argelès-Gazost was inaugurated this Saturday, October 12 in the presence of many actors and speakers. “This wonderful project was born thanks to the involvement of health professionals and the commitment of the municipality,” announces Gaelle Vallin, mayor of Argeles-Gazost, in her speech.
“The idea dates back to 2017: while the territorial network seems essential, Dr Charles Legrand is thinking of bringing together doctors, nurses and physiotherapists to complete the offer offered by the Ayzac-Ost health center” . The idea is launched, the doctors come together in an association, just before the retirement of Dr Legrand, who passes the baton to Dr Lucie Sarrazin, the physiotherapy practice of Patrice Gleyze and Virginie Abbadie Longo will join them.
The project is supported by the municipality in place at that time led by Dominique Roux, and will then be brought to fruition by the current municipal team led by Gaelle Vallin.
The renovation of the Jean Bourdette School and the grouping of schools will free up the premises of the Parc Suzanne school, whose buildings, close to the center, once renovated and enlarged, will be able to meet the local health needs of the population. valley.
From summer 2019, the first consultations with health professionals, future users, and the first administrative procedures will then follow. The construction site begins at the end of 2020 and the work, closely monitored by Serge Pratdessus, director of technical services at the Argelès-Gazost town hall, Christophe Mengelle, first deputy, and Jean Salvat, municipal councilor responsible for the work, will last 19 months. Far from being a joke, the takeover of the premises by the Interprofessional Ambulatory Care Society takes place on April 1, 2023.
Since this date, according to the CPAM, the medical center, which brings together 29 health professionals, doctors, physiotherapists, but also a midwife, a dietician, an orthoptist, etc. welcomed 7,984 patients in 2023, coming from the valleys of Gavarnie, Cauterets and Val d’Azun, and even from Lourdes and Tarbes. “A great success, a beautiful, expected and timely structure, an exemplary achievement, ideally located in the heart of the territory, with the medical analysis laboratory right next door and above all the culmination of enormous team work to carry out this local health project” noted in common agreement the various local authorities present at the inauguration.
Gaëlle Vallin did not fail to thank all the people who worked on this project, as well as the various funders, the State, the Region, the Department, Europe and the Community of Municipalities, without whom this project with a budget of 2.7 million euros, could not have seen the light of day.
