First, attached to the historic François Mitterrand building, we see one of the flagship centers of the project rising, the B2ME for mother-child medicine building. A year after the laying of the first stone, the structural work is just finished. Moreover, this Friday, June 28, large tables are set up on one floor for workers to celebrate the occasion.
The mother-child center in the spotlight
Inside, nothing is finished, even if the ground floor dedicated to gynecological and obstetric emergencies will open in September. It will serve as a buffer while the renovation begins on the François-Mitterrand side. This is one of the imperatives of this project: it must not prevent the hospital from operating. The B2ME will have 6,800 m² of new space and 2,800 m² of restructured space.
Nicolas Sabathier
The B2ME is connected by a two-level footbridge to the historic building.
Cécile Rousset, the senior manager in charge of the center, and Marie Mesnard, the director of financial affairs, detail larger rooms and blocks and more efficient access that will allow “better care, particularly for high-risk pregnancies, caesareans and premature babies, because we are a type 3 maternity hospital.” With this building, the adult emergency departments (north of the hospital), the pediatric emergency departments (entrance on the east side of the B2ME) and the gynecological and obstetric emergency departments (south of the B2ME) will now be well separated. After the health crisis, the new building, which will be fully commissioned in September 2025, will make it possible to separate patient flows.
A team project
“We have been working on this mother-child center project as a team for 8 years, with obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics,” said Dr. Thierry Mansir, revealing the 1is floor. “Our first requirement is to meet the growing needs of pediatric emergencies which have 22,000 visits per year, and particular attention to the mother-child bond”, with shared rooms. “With around a hundred pediatric gynecological consultations per day, the current premises do not allow us to go any further,” explains Cécile Rousset. More suitable premises are also synonymous with activities to be developed or created, such as “home hospitalization and the creation of kangaroo beds linked to maternity”, reveals the pediatrician.
Nicolas Sabathier
B2ME has four levels.
The two upper floors, covering 4,500 m², will be dedicated to medicine (oncology, nephrology, gastroenterology, dermatology, etc.). They will accommodate 84 beds, in single rooms (except three doubles) with WC, bathroom and shower in each – a revolution for those who know the historic building. The project does not provide for the creation of beds, but the rehabilitation of the old rooms which will be enlarged.
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Nicolas Sabathier
The hospital pharmacy must still expand to 2,600 m² at the rear of the hospital center.
The hospital pushes the walls to the north
At the back, we are a little lost. The hospital center has expanded almost to the ring road. On the west side, the future pharmacy will grow, the foundations of which are currently being laid, while the new emergency rooms are already built but will not open until next January, when the restructuring of the old ones will begin.
Nicolas Sabathier
The SMUR was the first new building commissioned last November.
The Smur has had its new premises since November, closer to the heliport. The brand new garage accommodates its resuscitation ambulances and vehicles, but also has, in the event of an exceptional health situation, a state-of-the-art decontamination unit, for five victims before they are received at the neighboring emergency room – essential with the Lacq industrial platform. The garage can even be transformed to handle 25 victims per hour.
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More comfortable emergencies
Nicolas Sabathier
Future emergencies promise more comfort and fluidity of reception.
Workers are busy in the 3,700 m² of the new emergency rooms (2,500 m² are to be rehabilitated by September 2025). Here too, the head of department, Doctor Thibault Viard, promises greater and more fluid, from reception to triage, from the short circuit to vital emergencies… Enough to improve care. A large modular room has been set up so as to “not wait on stretchers in the corridors”, advocates the emergency doctor. Obviously concerned about the well-being of patients, he also shows boxes open to natural light “so as not to further disorient the disabled or fragile people who spend time here”. “These new premises will also be good for the teams,” notes one of his colleagues following the visit. And as with B2ME, the site will be able to adapt to the infectious risk; by differentiating patient access and care.
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Upstairs, the service will have 30 beds – 8 more than today – for two types of hospitalization. “Short term,” explains the doctor, for patients who require close monitoring and who are not quite ready to join a hospital department or return home. And an adult post-emergency unit. »
Expansions = jobs?
Is this large expansion of the hospital synonymous with jobs? The new director Julien Rossignol assured during the B2ME visit “that there will be job creation for the mother-child center, especially paramedics, nurses, midwives and childcare workers, because mechanically there will be an activity additional and we have pricing based on activity.” The boss confides that it is “simpler to generate income for the Pau hospital, specialized and primary care, but we must also consolidate the small ones in Orthez, Oloron or Mauléon, by recruiting doctors on site or by allowing those from Pau to go to the territories”.
