HEALTH: A medical air bridge between Dijon and Nevers
This Thursday, January 26, took place the first operation “Flying Doctors” on the initiative of the mayor of Nevers Denis Thuriot. It is a question of transporting doctors from Dijon for consultations at the Neversois hospital center. Eight practitioners therefore left for the day from Dijon-Bourgogne-Franche-Comté airport.
7:30 a.m. in Longvic, this Thursday, January 26, 2023. An unusual scene is taking place at Dijon-Bourgogne-Franche-Comté airport. Chartered by the Swiss company Fly 7, the flight of the “flying doctors” is being prepared on the tarmac with the pilot and co-pilot of the Pilatus PC-12, an eight-seater single-engine aircraft.
Precisely, eight doctors arrive one after the other with their medical kit, to take the first medical flight between Dijon and Nevers. Among them, there is a pulmonologist, a cardiologist, a nuclear doctor, a maxillofacial doctor, an orthopedist, a gynecologist as well as Doctor Barra who must prepare the establishment of an SOS Médecins antenna in the capital of Nièvre.
“Airport infrastructure is vital”
Before the departure of the flight, each partner explained the reasons for this aerial choice.
Olivier Galzi, vice-president of EDEIS, an engineering group that operates Dijon-Bourgogne-Franche-Comté airport, insisted on the role played by airports during the health crisis or even fires: “the infrastructures of airport are vital, vital for patients who need to be treated, we realized this at the time of the Covid. Out of 17 managed airports, our daily life in 2022 is more than 2,000 medical flights and a network of more of 10,000 civil security flights”.
“Nevers is not the desert but we are in shortage of doctors”
If some speak of “medical deserts”, the mayor of Nevers Denis Thuriot (RE) refuted this expression to evoke the problems he encounters in practice: “Nevers is not a desert but we are in shortage of doctors”.
The Neversois reported that the CHU Dijon-Bourgogne and the Georges-François Leclerc cancer center are partners in this action.
The one who is also regional councilor for Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, sitting in the opposition, recalled the mobility issues while the circulation of TER between Dijon and Nevers will soon be interrupted for seven months due to works.
“We will balance the CO2 of the plane in compensation”
Trying to thwart possible contradictions, Denis Thuriot underlined the geographical remoteness of the Ligurian city by recalling that “Nevers at the departmental hospital furthest in travel time from a CHU hospital in France, and it is take into account in this decision.
The Pilatus P12 is “one of the planes that consume the least”, insisted on the elected progressive, praising the “exemplary” commitments of Fly 7 in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“By avoiding travel from Nivernais to Dijon, we will compensate for the CO2 of the plane. Rather than bringing people to the doctor, it’s bringing the doctor to people,” he explained. At the same time, EDEIS acquires CO2 compensation certificates.
An initial cost of 670 euros per passenger
The budget for the first round trip flight over one day is offered at 5,200 euros, or 670 euros per passenger, paid for by the Nevers Agglomeration hospital center (CHAN).
“It’s still cheaper than having to pay a mercenary doctor, whom I distinguish from conventional intermediaries who, themselves, come under more reasonable conditions”, took care to indicate the mayor of Nevers.
The elected Nevers plans to solicit the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region as well as the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional health agency.
A reflection on the use of the airport which is part of the development of the territory
For her part, Céline Tonot (PS), recalled that the Metropolis of Dijon finances Dijon-Bourgogne airport through the joint management union of Dijon Longvic airport. The metropolitan vice-president in charge of public procurement sees in the Dijon airport “an ally of the territory”.
This Thursday’s “Flying Doctor” operation opens the way to new reflections on the use of the plane in intra-territorial flights, which brought Michel Neugnot, vice-president of the regional council of Bourgogne-Franche- County responsible for mobility, to highlight the issue of regional planning.
The vice-president of the Region retained “the need to revisit within the framework of the scheme of all mobility, in particular the aerial platforms of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté”.
“We had drawn up an initial strategy in 2017 and it was already clear that there was a need to have a territorial network for mobility by air, given the size of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. The study on mobility is in progress”, he indicated.
Objective 40 flights in the year
The eight doctors then settled into the plane, under the gaze of Denis Thuriot, who was staying in Dijon to take part in a session of the Region, for a 35-minute flight to arrive at Nevers Fourchambault airport, located in near the Neversois hospital centre.
The flights were to run every Thursday for 40 weeks of the year with the option of flights over two days, Thursday and Friday, for doctors monitoring their patients for 48 hours. Economic actors have also been part of their interest in the event of the establishment of two round trips in the same day.
Texts and photographs
Sabrina Dolidze