The transformation of Hôtel Dieu is moving ahead with opposition intensifying

The Hotel Dieu sits just next to the Notre Dame Cathedral and is a symbol of health care to many in Paris. It is also a bit of an outdated facility largely unsuited for its current task of providing health care to patients. There have been many plans for its transformation, the latest being to convert it into an "Academic Public Health Hospital." That plan was announced by the Minister of Health last year. The current plan is to move the specialty and urgent care clinical work of the hospital to the Hôpital Cochin while maintaining beds at the current site for general medicine and preventive services. Labor unions and many on the staff of the hospital have resisted this for some time with a rising voice in opposition emerging in the last few months as the deadline for closing the emergency services come nearer. The issue is close to my work as the office of the EHESP in Paris have been in a small corner of the top floor of the Hotel Dieu. They will also be moved in the renovation work out to the Peripherique into another hospital that is being renovated, Hôpital Broussais.