French Guiana: creation of a university hospital to improve healthcare provision

On Monday, June 16, the University of French Guiana and the regional hospital center formalized the creation of the University Hospital Center (CHU) for this overseas territory, with the aim of improving healthcare provision and reducing medical evacuations. The two institutions signed the university hospital agreement formalizing the creation of the CHU in the presence of the Minister for Overseas Territories, Manuel Valls.

The objective of the new facility is twofold: it should improve healthcare provision and limit the number of medical evacuations, estimated at 300 in 2024 due to specialties not available in the territory. Their reduction will constitute "one of the indicators of success of the CHU," Christophe Bouriat, interim director of the CHU, emphasized to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Despite health indicators that are worse than the French average ," the local population is "under-consuming" healthcare, he noted. A third of Guyanese foregone medical care in 2019, according to INSEE.

In order to address the problem of French Guiana's isolation, which is partly responsible for these abandonments, the CHU will have a multi-site structure, integrating the three hospitals in Cayenne, Kourou, and Saint-Laurent, as well as the seventeen care centers in isolated communities. The goal is to avoid concentrating all the sectors in Cayenne, where a third of the territory's 300,000 inhabitants live.

"Thinking on a multi-site scale will allow for a coherent provision of care, because the university hospital is also a regional planning tool," argued the Minister for Overseas Territories, Manuel Valls, before signing the hospital-university agreement.

In French Guiana, the creation of a university hospital was a long-standing request, to which the government committed as early as 2017, when the French Guiana Agreement was signed. However, it took until 2021, in the midst of the Covid crisis, for the government to approve the order for a university hospital.

Since then, healthcare provision has expanded, particularly in neurology and cardiology. The University of Guyana, a core component of the CHU, has also grown in strength. It can now provide local training from the first year of medical school through to the seventh year of residency.

"The creation of the CHU is not a luxury, but a vital necessity. It is a major turning point for our health system and the recognition that French Guiana has the same rights in health and training as other territories," Christophe Bouriat told Agence France-Presse (AFP) after signing the agreement.