• The announcement of the closure of the Natecia private maternity hospital in Rillieux-la-Pape, scheduled for June 1, aroused the anger of the staff.

  • If the management evokes a "significant drop in births" to justify this decision, the employees denounce the brutality of the announcement.

  • They launched a petition to save the establishment recognized for the quality of its care.

Yoga workshops, massages for newborns, virtual reality sessions to relieve stress before childbirth... In the space of five years, the Natecia private maternity hospital in Rillieux-la-Pape, near Lyon , has become a reference establishment.

A “top-of-the-range”, “small-scale” structure, recognized for its cutting-edge services.

The “brutal” announcement of its imminent closure surprised and shocked the staff.

On June 1, the maternity ward will cease all activity.

“Our patients were not even warned.

They discovered the information on the radio when they are due to give birth in a few weeks”, protests an employee of the establishment saying she is “poor” and “angry”.

A few days before the Easter weekend, the 14 midwives and auxiliaries who work on site full-time received a registered letter for a summons the next day, when they were informed of the transfer of activities to the maternity ward of 8th arrondissement of Lyon belonging to the same group.

Decline in the number of births

“We were informed in November of a planned closure scheduled for April 30, giving us time to find solutions.

The town halls of Rillieux-la-Pape and Sathonay-Camp have taken action to delay the deadline.

We had many service projects which were put in place at the end of 2021 but we were not listened to,” laments an employee.

The reason given by the Noalys group: “a significant drop in births”.

The facility aims for 500 deliveries per year.

"If we were able to reach this number at one time, the 406 births recorded in 2021 are very insufficient and unfortunately lead us to make this decision", argues CEO Jean-Loup Durousset for whom the "mobilization" of an obstetrician, an anesthetist, a pediatrician and midwives "continuously over a year" is no longer justified in view of the figures.

A petition launched by the staff

These arguments are however "not admissible", according to the staff who launched a petition to denounce this decision deemed "incomprehensible".

“The decline in the number of births is national.

We are not an isolated case, answers another employee.

Currently, we have registered 20 births more than last year at the same time.

If we had been allowed to finish the year, we would have reached 500.

Aware of being "facing a wall", the employees hope to find a buyer to allow the maternity hospital to continue its activities.

Its closure would force patients to refer to the maternity ward of the 8th, that of the Croix-Rousse, to the Médipole, the Val d'Ouest or the Saint-Luc-Saint-Joseph hospital.

“This will not lead to any failure in the reception of future mothers.

There is no medical desert,” said Jean-Loup Durousset.

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