The municipal council of Grimaud voted at the meeting of September 25, 2018, a motion against the closure of the maternity health pole of the Gulf of St. Tropez. It reinforces the deliberation taken by the community of communes to amplify this refusal of local elected representatives and the population to face this threat.

Here is the full text:

As part of the Regional Health Project 2018-2023, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) has considered a redeployment of maternity Var and has conducted, in the month of September, an audit of maternity Pole Health Gulf of St. Tropez.

Although the facility has an average of 480 deliveries in the last three years, including 458 in 2017 (well above the threshold of 300 required by the Perinatal Decree), there are serious concerns about its future, given the announced target to close two Department-wide facilities.

However, a closure of this structure would seriously threaten the balance of our living area which counts 55 000 permanent inhabitants and sees its population multiplied by ten between Easter and All Saints' Day.

Considering the geographical isolation of our territory, if such a decision were to be recorded, the nearest hospitals with a maternity hospital (Fréjus and Draguignan) would be an hour and a half drive around the Gulf Communes. Saint-Tropez, or two hours and more in the summer season.

The journey times would be lengthened excessively, depriving the inhabitants of the Gulf of an essential public service of proximity.

In addition, the closure of the maternity ward could be the prelude to the closure of other hospital services.

However, it should be remembered that the health center of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez was realized fourteen years ago, at the cost of a heavy investment of the State and after long years of negotiations to achieve on this site a partnership between the public and private sectors.

Its creation and especially the maintenance of a public health service in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez had been the subject of a long struggle of the local population and elected officials for nearly twenty years, conducted successfully.

In order to maintain this public service of proximity essential to the life of our territory, the Municipal Council decided, unanimously:

• to put in place actions to show its determination to oppose the plan to close the maternity unit of the Health Center of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez;
• mobilize all local elected representatives to influence decisions and act with departmental, regional and national bodies;
• to notify the present motion to the Minister of Solidarities and Health, to the Deputy of the IV Constituency of the Var, to the Prefect of Provence-Alpes-Côte-D'azur Region and to the Regional Director of the Regional Health Agency.