Nearly 2,000 demonstrators demanded, Wednesday October 4, in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, the maintenance of hospital emergencies in this town of 7,000 inhabitants in the Hautes-Pyrénées. The service experienced several days of closure in September and early October, and has been closed at night since 2021, according to France Bleu.
Many traders also closed their stores to express their attachment to this hospital service, as part of a “dead city” day.
“Without emergencies, all sacrificed”, “Let’s save emergencies”, “No life without emergencies”, or “I’m 9 years old, my life is worth more than your profits”, could we read on signs brandished by the demonstrators , whose numbers fluctuated between 1,800 (according to the police) and 2,000 people (according to the organizers).
“I have a feeling of pride (…) We need your mobilization,” declared the mayor, Claude Cazabat, addressing the demonstrators. “The opening of the emergency room in Bagnères can only reduce the load on the emergency service in Tarbes (twenty kilometers away)” the councilor also clarified in the daily La Dépêche du Midi. “The question of emergencies is vital,” he continues.
The association Save the B2B hospital (for Bagnères-de-Bigorre), which had called for this mobilization, fears that the Tarbes-Lourdes joint hospital project will lead to a definitive closure of emergency services like that of Bagnères -de-Bigorre.
“The hospitals of Tarbes and Lourdes would be replaced by a single hospital in Lanne, in the middle of the countryside between the two cities, even though we know that hospital replacements are financial waste and health fiascos! “, she insists.