Strasbourg (AFP)

The government ended Wednesday the director of the Grand Est Regional Health Agency of Christophe Lannelongue, who had caused an uproar by believing that it was necessary to continue the job cuts at Nancy CHRU.

"The chief of staff to the Minister of Health contacted me this morning to tell me that the government wanted to end my functions because of the debate on the Nancy teaching hospital," Lannelongue told AFP.

Government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye confirmed at the end of the Council of Ministers the dismissal of Mr. Lannelongue, who will be replaced by "a doctor" from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas).

This woman, who "until now participated in the national crisis cell" against the Covid-19 epidemic, "will be operational very quickly," she said.

The representative of the government expressed the "disagreement" of the Minister of Health and Solidarity Olivier Véran, "with the personal proposal given" by Christophe Lannelongue.

The latter had estimated Friday that there was "no reason to question" the interministerial committee for the performance and modernization of the hospital care offer (Copermo), which provides for the abolition over five years of 174 beds (out of 1,577 in 2018) and 598 positions at the Nancy University Hospital (out of around 9,000). "We will be a few weeks late but the trajectory will remain the same," he added.

Sibeth Ndiaye considered it "important that senior officials, and in this case the Director General of ARS, implement all the recommendations that are made for the national health policy and in this case on the issue of hospitals and hospital bed closures ".

She also argued in favor of "fluidity between the national and local levels" to obtain "good conduct of public policies".

Christophe Lannelongue's words had aroused the ire of many elected representatives from Lorraine, many of whom wrote to Olivier Véran.

The latter then announced the suspension of all reorganization plans. "In Nancy, as everywhere, the time has come to mobilize everyone to face # COVID19. The time will come to learn from this unprecedented crisis and to rebuild our hospital. All plans for reorganization are obviously on hold at the big consultation that will follow, "the minister tweeted.

Wednesday Mr. Lannelongue estimated that there was "a misunderstanding". "At no time did I question the legitimacy of the Minister (of Health) to decide, what he did on Sunday since he announced that there was indeed suspension of the project and that the question would be resumed later".

"The medical teams are very satisfied with the way in which the ARS reacted" to the coronavirus crisis, said Mr. Lannelongue, who will return to the Igas. "We have tripled resuscitation capacities, we have made sure that in the Grand Est region, all the patients have been taken care of," he said, while the region is one of the most severely affected by the epidemic.

© 2020 AFP