According to information from RTS, the Admed Foundation, the largest analysis laboratory in the canton of Neuchâtel, is showing a loss and its director is the target of an external audit. The building project launched with the Neuchâtel Hospital Network (RHNe), estimated at more than 40 million francs, thus finds itself compromised.
At the start, there was a flamboyant general manager, even a little flamboyant, people who worked with him criticized him. He is the boss of Admed, a private law foundation, whose main client is the public hospital.
Buoyed by the good business of the Covid years, he convinced his foundation to draw on its reserves to buy a huge building east of Neuchâtel in order to create “the laboratory of the future”, as he likes to say. A project carried out in partnership with the Neuchâtel hospital network, which must establish outpatient services there to relieve congestion in its emergency rooms.
The 10,000 m2 building, classified as a modern architectural heritage and empty for more than ten years, was purchased for 8 million francs. The goal is therefore to centralize the activities of the largest provider of medical analyzes and diagnostics in the canton, while renting half of the space to RHNe. Admed launched the work this summer, still drawing on its reserves.
>> Ludovic Rocchi’s explanations in the 7:30 p.m.
Construction site threatened with shutdown
But for several days, as RTS noted, the renovation project has been slowing down. According to consistent testimony, several scenarios are being studied to avoid a total freeze of work. It appears urgent to find between two and ten million francs to continue at least the reconstruction of the exterior envelope, while the demolition work is coming to an end.
The lack of funding therefore threatens the continuation of this project costing more than 40 million francs in total. How could two such important partners launch without guaranteeing funding? It turns out that RHNe has not yet signed the lease.
“We are still in negotiations, this is normal as a future tenant,” Philippe Eckert, chairman of the board of directors of RHNe, told RTS. He adds that the Neuchâtel hospital must still refine what it wants to do with this major extension and what outpatient services will take place there.
The amount of rent is a problem
According to several internal sources, it appears that Admed would ask for up to 30% more per m2 than what was agreed last year in a letter of intent. In addition, RHNE is facing one of the worst deficits in its history, with delays in its restructuring plans. At the end of the chain, the absence of a signed lease therefore prevents you from obtaining a construction loan from a bank for the moment.
Concerned by the information brought to its attention (…), the Foundation Council mandated an external service provider to carry out an analysis
The negotiation is not about to succeed. Admed is therefore currently scrambling to try to find intermediate financing, because it can no longer count on its reserves. Worse, its 2023 results and its 2024 budget show red figures, a first in the history of the laboratory which carries out three million analyzes per year and employs more than 200 people. But that’s not all: the general director of Admed finds himself on the sidelines.
>> Details from Forum:
The director accused of abuses
He was removed from his post at the end of last August to make way for an external audit of his methods. Under cover of anonymity, employees confirm several dysfunctions: staff suffering, authoritarian management and a director who is willing to spend money. According to our information, he should have already reimbursed part of his expense reports.
Some do not want this new building project and are doing everything to demolish it
The president of the Board of the Admed Foundation, Muriel Desaulles, confirms the existence of this audit: “Concerned by the information brought to its attention and concerned about a constructive and respectful working climate, the Foundation Board has mandated a external service provider to carry out an analysis on governance and the working climate, in order to understand all the elements at the origin of these difficulties. As is customary in such a situation, the general director is not. at his post during the analysis.”
Also contacted, the director of Admed disputes these accusations. According to him, the fear of change that he says he represents pushes colleagues to harm him. “Some people don’t want this new building project and are doing everything to demolish it,” he says. The results of the audit are expected by the middle of next month.
Gabriel de Weck and Ludovic Rocchi
