Par
Emilie Salabelle
Published on
Jan 23, 2025 at 6:04 a.m.
In the damp fog, the withered carcass of the clinique Hoffmann is sinister. Surrounded by HLM buildings, the massive block, walled up windows and fenced perimeter, has slowly disintegrated since its liquidation in 2016, followed by its definitive closure in 2017. After years of abandonmentthe town of Rosny-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), owner since 2019, began in November 2024 the launch of a real estate project. On the foundations of the destroyed hospital, a new medical center and new housing will emerge. Before the demolition of this concrete liner planned for the year 2025, the maternity part of which has seen the birth of many Rosneans, Paris news went there.
“It was a service to everyone”
“A new medical center here? But it's great news. There is a real need for it. The neighborhood lacks doctors, physiotherapists…” describes Santa Bollaky. Inhabitant of priority district Marnaudes – Bois Perrier and immediate neighbor of the clinic that he quickly passes on his way to church, he says in a teasing tone “I'm going to go thank God”. Rosneans for 35 years, he remembers a time when services were running at full capacity. “It was a good service to everyone. Motherhood was very appreciated,” he testifies under his umbrella.
Since the end of treatment, time has stopped around the clinic. Like vestiges, red signs here recall an entrance reserved for the firefighter, now walled up, there a “medical service 7 days a week”… In a doorway, cardboard packages intended for the collection of medical waste are piled up .
“I had gallbladder surgery here. There was everything you need: blocks, scanners, imaging,” smiles Jessica, who is returning from shopping with her daughter Leila. His gaze rises towards the gutted windows, the broken blinds. “There were a lot of rooms,” remembers the Rosnéenne.
“A wart in the neighborhood”
Riddled with gaps, the medical fortress, left in a certain haste, quickly became a place of squatting, a landmark for drug users and the homeless, residents say. Under the staircase covered in dead leaves, facing the main entrance eaten by ivy, we can see a makeshift shelter and dog bowls.
This abandoned setting has also become the stronghold of young people in the neighborhood, says Leila. On her way to college, the young girl saw them regularly, climbing on abandoned cars to scale the barriers, taking out tables and installing them on the lawns between the buildings, shooting rap videos. “It’s become an unsafe place, we don’t like it to stay like that. Besides, there are often police raids,” comments his mother.
The interior is not left out, describes Jean-Paul Fauconnet, mayor (LR) of the town, contacted by telephone: “When it closed, the clinic had not been emptied. There are still prescriptions, invoices… The staff left everything abandoned. There were wild dumps around. The clinic has become a storage room. It is a wart in the neighborhood, with all that it creates of rats and other pests. »
Lead, asbestos and water leaks
Due to a mismanagementthe Hoffmann clinic was placed in compulsory liquidation in 2016, then administratively closed in 2017. “The closure of the clinic was dramatic for the neighborhood, which is saturated with housing, but which lacks care structures. From year to year, the number of clinics has decreased in the area,” recalls Daniel Cohen, physiotherapist and manager of the Hoffmann health center, located 300 m from the clinic.
The medical structure never found a buyer, with the cost of the work looking colossal. “The projects presented were not viable. The building is filled with asbestos and lead, there is water in the basement. The ARS had advised us against opening a new clinic,” explains the mayor.
Bought by the municipality in 2019, the site, which remained a wreck, became a financial pit for the city, which spent a total of 700,000 euros in property tax since the acquisition of the land. The municipal majority at the time planned to make it a place dedicated to sport and a new square. “But it couldn't come to fruition due to the significant cost of the project and the demolition work to be planned,” recalls Jean-Paul Fauconnet.
-A new health center and housing
These years of neglect should soon come to an end. In November 2024, the municipal council voted to transfer the plots of the Hoffmann clinic to Semro (Mixed Economy Company of Rosny-sous-Bois). The sale should be recorded within two months, indicates the councilor.
After demolition, a new health home located on the ground floor will extend over 600 m². It will serve as a new site for the current Philibert-Hoffmann medical center, whose premises are aging. 14 medical and paramedical professionals are planned, and ultimately, more than twenty. “I wanted the old clinic to maintain a medical offering in the future. » We hope that new caregivers will settle there. The challenge is to maintain our doctors in this district which is part of the medical deserts,” explains Jean-Paul Fauconnet.
Above this future medical center, 80 accommodationssocial and intermediary, will be built on a total surface area of 5,000 m2. “They will make the overall project profitable, while meeting housing needs. We would like to be able to accommodate health professionals, medical students, nurses, etc. as a priority,” explains the mayor. To date, the cost of the operation as well as the share of social housing has not yet been definitively established, the municipality tells us. 40% of the total area will be reserved for green space. Parking lots, underground and outdoor, are also planned.
“Bring in practitioners”
After the demolition which should take place within the year, delivery of the future building complex is planned within a period of three yearsthe mayor tells us.
In the narrow corridors of the current Hoffmann health center, we await the deadline with a certain impatience. This project, built in collaboration with the Regional Union of Health Professionals (URPS), brings a glimmer of hope. Beyond their premises of 300 m2 with their dilapidated appearance – the URPS judged that they would no longer be usable in their current state within two to three years – recruitment problems are becoming more and more critical from year to year. This new, spacious and new medical center could attract a new generation of caregivers.
Daniel Cohen, the physiotherapist who manages the structure, puts it into context: “This center was very attractive when it opened in 1989, all the premises were full. But currently, we are struggling to replace retirements and to recruit new practitioners.
To illustrate his point, the caregiver takes out his phone and points to an ad offering a physiotherapist position, which he posted online three months ago. “I didn’t get a single response,” he comments, disillusioned. Now, to attract health professionals, we have to offer endless benefits, it’s becoming immoral,” he sighs.
“The major challenge is to bring in practitioners. If we don't find a solution, there will be no more doctors here in five years, and the center will find itself faced with outright closure,” he is alarmed. Already, medical emergencies remain unanswered, delays are stretching beyond reason. “It takes three months to wait to have a physio appointment, it’s unacceptable,” says Daniel Cohen.
“A real estate development operation”
But the project is not unanimous. The municipal opposition group Rosny Écologique et Solidaire has launched an online petition to denounce a “real estate development operation”. “This project does not meet the medical-social needs of the neighborhood. Out of a total area of 5,000 m², only 600 m² are reserved for the medical center. The rest will be devoted to housing in a neighborhood that is already saturated with it. We believe that there could have been other, more ambitious projects to carry out in terms of municipal equipment. The city could have submitted the transformation of the site to a call for expressions of interest,” regrets Magalie Thibault, president of the opposition group.
The elected official also regrets the lack of consultation with residents on the future of the old clinic, and a project built without consultation with the municipal council. “With each budget, my group asked the question of the future of the clinic,” she adds. Criticisms brushed aside by the councilor, who assures “save the provision of care” in a district “where there are no more doctors”. As for the new housing, they will meet the high demand: “We have 2,000 people waiting,” explains the mayor.
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