2024-10-19 12:00:00
François-Noël Buffet, minister responsible for overseas territories, in Nouméa, October 16, 2024. THEO ROUBY / AFP
The surroundings of the Médipôle, the large ultra-modern hospital in Nouméa, have returned to a normal appearance. Hot spot of the spring insurrection, surrounded by pro-independence roadblocks, it had taken on the appearance of a besieged fortress, while rioters who had been burned, police officers hit, and wounded by bullets from both camps flocked to the emergency room. If the dialysis center building, attacked in the early hours of May 13, remains out of use, and two vehicle wrecks are still parked, isolated, in nearby parking lots, access is now without problem.
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But the crisis is far from having finished producing its effects behind the walls of the hospital center. The Médipôle, in which the minister responsible for overseas territories, François-Noël Buffet, completed his four-day trip to New Caledonia on Saturday October 19, is facing a hemorrhage of caregivers from which he may not recover.
In the dialysis department, Doctor Nicolas Quirin was waiting for a replacement doctor who would not come, and an assistant who was supposed to join the team withdrew. Support capacity has fallen by almost 60%. “In some departments, the team held on, in others, it collapsed”comments the doctor.
Vacancies
The neurology department lost two out of five doctors. Five of the ten gynecologists have left and the guards they provided to support the dispensaries in the north of the territory can no longer be provided as before. In oncology, worse, the three doctors have packed up.
Pulmonology has shrunk into a small space, and the visiting minister takes a corridor completely emptied of its activity. The service now only has two doctors out of six; it closed eighteen beds in June. “We have difficulty monitoring patients. And we are increasingly facing medico-legal problems. Fortunately people are not very litigious here”notes Doctor Cristian Boboc.
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At the hospital level, many “metropolitan” staff, who represent a quarter of the doctor workforce, may want to leave. “Some are looking to sell their house. The majority of departures will take place before July, for the start of the school year in September. We are dreading this period”underlines the president of the establishment’s medical commission, Doctor Thierry de Greslan. “There is mourning to be done over what happened. The denial is over, what remains is the anger and sadness. » According to this professional, “if departures reach 25% of the workforce, the situation could change and the hospital could collapse. We are already seeing absenteeism increasing”.
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