How does the Basque Coast Hospital Center (CHCB) integrate into the territorial dynamics with local communities, associations and public health institutions?
We lead several types of cooperation. First internally, within the territory hospital group (GHT), then with all health establishments in the Basque Country or medical care and rehabilitation structures (SMR). These partnerships allow us to organize coordinated health courses for each patient and to ensure fluid and quality care. In addition, we are working closely with liberal health professionals (city doctors, nurses, pharmacists), who regroup in the territorial professional communities (CPTS). They are precious interlocutors to better meet the needs of the territory. We are fortunate to evolve in a region where health professionals are numerous, which limits the health escape of patients to other territories and strengthens our local care capacity.
“We are fortunate to evolve in a region where healthcare professionals are numerous”
What about your innovative project to improve the management of specific audiences, such as women with chronic pathologies?
The structuring project around the health of women, which we initiate, mobilizes surgeons, gynecologists-obstetricians, general practitioners and specialists, in order to improve the prevention, screening and management of specific issues. It is a question of better identifying symptoms, especially in pathologies like strokes, where signs in women are sometimes less well interpreted. This awareness is essential, because scientific literature shows a real bias against women. We also work on specific pathologies such as endometriosis or menopause. The objective is to federate existing skills within the hospital to create a real network, offering patients a unique and readable entry point in their care path.
What place do you give prevention in your medical project and how do you want to strengthen this dimension in the coming years?
Prevention is a central pillar of our medical project, especially for women and the elderly. Chronic diseases are growing strongly and it is essential to act upstream. To do this, we rely on our prevention and public health center, made up of a hundred people, including a team dedicated to six prevention specialists. This pole ensures the methodology, coordination and evaluation of prevention actions. Its role is to structure effective prevention approaches, adapted to the identified needs and to integrate them transversally into all our hospital practices.
What are you most proud today in the actions carried out within the CHCB and what are the priority projects that you still want to move forward?
We are proud to have changed the mission of the hospital: today, our role is no longer limited to treating. It extends to the promotion of health and well-being. Our priority is, precisely, to strengthen this culture of health promotion in all sectors of the hospital and to disseminate it among the population, in close connection with the actors of the territory. It is by associating citizens more with health care traces that we can permanently improve the quality of life and the support of our patients.
