From an eight-seater plane at launch, in January 2023, the transport of doctors from the Dijon University Hospital to the Nevers hospital increased to a four-seater plane. A format more suited to “traffic”, and less expensive…
Launched in January 2023 with eight doctors on board, the air bridge between Dijon and Nevers had seen a little big and its format has just been resized. This Thursday, May 2, a Diamond Aircraft with four passenger seats landed at Nevers airport, with two doctors on board.
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A reduced format with a new company, Revolution’air, whose director Nicolas Marziali, was present to launch this new contract with the Nevers urban area hospital center (CHAN).
A smaller, cheaper plane
A smaller plane that consumes less and costs less; “we adapt” justifies Denis Thuriot, mayor of Nevers and president of the CHAN Supervisory Board, at the origin of the initiative. If the “flying doctors” are no longer as numerous as at the start, 167 of them boarded 45 flights, from January 2023 to March 2024. Today, the connection is scheduled until July 2024, and Denis Thuriot defended its necessity, beyond the media effect:
The Nevers hospital is the furthest from a university hospital in France. A solution had to be found.
In this case, a travel time (35 to 40 min) allowing doctors to easily make the Dijon-Nevers round trip during the day. Much easier than by road (minimum 2h30) and even by train (2h17). “Who does 180 km in 2 hours 17 minutes today? Nobody” rails Denis Thuriot, who takes the opportunity to scratch the executive of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté regional council: “After seven months of work and interruption, the line doesn’t offer more comfort and not a minute less… It’s a shame!”
After more than seven months of work, the Nevers-Dijon line back on track
Concerning the financing of the airlift, assumed by the CHAN, Denis Thuriot mentions €192,000 of expenditure in 2023, but €333,000 of revenue on the other hand. “It is a burden, but also an investment, because the absence of medical resources leads to even more deficit” confirms Florent Foucard, director of the Nièvre Territorial Hospital Group (GHT).
A relaunch of SOS Médecins
Today, this airlift makes it possible to attract three profiles, according to Denis Thuriot: specialists “who provide expertise”, doctors for “advanced consultations which save patients the need to travel to Dijon”, and surgeons who come to operate . For him, this medical reinforcement in Nevers is also “a way of combating the renunciation of care” by reducing the distance for certain consultations.
Philippe Cordier, municipal councilor responsible for health, insists on a side effect of the airlift: the relaunch of the SOS Médecins hotlines in Nevers, likely to relieve emergency congestion and help the many Nivernais without a treating doctor.
SOS Médecins opened its doors in Nevers: how does it work?
Finally, regarding the airport, Corinne Mangel, deputy in charge of air development, is currently working on other ideas for connections, in particular “testing a tourist flight to Corsica this summer”…
Alain Gavriloff
