“What is needed is near the city, on a high point, among trees and fields, a brand new building, vast, flooded with air and light, where without danger for their brothers unhappy and for themselves, the tuberculous able to breathe a pure and isolated air”.

An idea born in 1902

As early as 1902, the Administrative Commission of the Hospices de Toulouse evoked the idea of ​​erecting a new hospital out of town to accommodate tuberculosis patients.

The project, which is refined over time, provides for the construction of eight pavilions and 570 advanced beds for medicine as well as surgery, childbirth and contagious patients. It was recorded in July 1905 with the purchase of the Baladier estate. Already strong of about twenty hectares, the establishment sees in 1913, under the impetus of Firmin Ponsthe director of the Toulouse tramway company and new administrator, its area doubler, following the acquisition of the adjacent Bastard estate.

Work spanning almost 40 years

Barely begun, work was suspended until 1923. The site was used by the army, which set up a field hospital there during the First World War. The post-war years plagued by inflation forced the Commission to postpone the construction of certain pavilions.

During the following decade, it finally received public subsidies from the General Council of Haute-Garonne and the Ministry of Health. On the eve of the Second World War, the airy “hospital-garden” designed by the architect Barthélémy Guitard (and completed by his successor Bernard Valette) shines with its innovations: its fully electric equipment and its ingenious system of underground corridors allowing the caregivers to move around easily.

Inaugurated by Ellen-Prevot, Mayor of Toulouse

On March 17, 1940, it was finally accomplished by Ellen-Prevot, the mayor of Toulouse, and Hippolyte Ducos, the Under Secretary of State for War. The hour of rejoicing is short-lived. The establishment is again requisitioned by the military authorities.

From post-war euphoria to specializations

The post-war period, driven by the considerable progress due to the evoked (penicillin then streptomycin), changed the situation for many patients. The communist daily The Patriot does not hesitate to headline euphorically: “Purpan: modern miracle factory! “.

The medical equipment is modern, with Piker mobile x-ray and infrared devices. The number of double beds reaching nearly 1,000 places. Professors André Enjalbert and Henri Eschapasse enter the history of medicine by carrying out, on February 3, 1958, the first open-heart operation.

From the 1960s and 1970s, the rural face of Purpan gradually disappeared, with the appearance, among other things, of the Blood Transfusion Center (then enlarged twice), of the Admissions and Triage Center (CATU)of the Dieulafoy Clinic (ENT, ophthalmology, hematology, gastroenterology) or even Marcel Riser neurology pavilion (shaved in June 2020).

Matthew Arnal

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