This provincial department surpasses the capital in number of health establishments.
France has nearly 3,000 hospitals and clinics which welcome around 13 million patients each year, according to Drees. The distribution of these health establishments is based on very supervised health planning, centered on care needs. To put it simply, the more inhabitants there are, the more there is a need for structures to care for them. This is how the department which hosts the most hospitals is also the most populated in France. And it’s not Paris, contrary to what one might think. Nor Marseille. Which one then?
Several criteria are analyzed by the Regional Health Agencies to determine the geographical distribution of hospitals: age of the population, state of health, chronic illnesses, births, precariousness. They also look at patient flows, access times to care, emergency room saturation, travel times. Emergencies, maternity wards, medical, surgical or specialized care services: each territory must provide accessible and rapid care. History also plays a big role in the location of hospitals in France. Some territories have retained several establishments from former municipal, mining or religious hospitals. Rather than closing everything, the State has often transformed or specialized these structures.
A department thus concentrates the largest number of hospitals in France. 65 years precisely, according to the map published by the Journal des Femmes Santé. This is more than Paris (55) or other highly urbanized departments such as Bouches-du-Rhône (45). This department is the North (59).
The North has one of the most structured hospital networks in the country. It has several renowned establishments. The Lille University Hospital is the central figure: one of the largest university hospitals in France, with several reference hospitals such as Jeanne-de-Flandre, renowned for maternity and pediatrics, or Huriez for specialized care and research.
Other establishments play a major role on a local and regional scale, such as the Valenciennes hospital center, one of the largest outside CHU, the Dunkirk hospital center or the hospitals of Roubaix, Tourcoing and Douai. Added to this are several private clinics, particularly in the Lille metropolitan area, which complete the healthcare offering and contribute to the high concentration of hospitals in the department. This exceptional concentration of hospitals reminds us that access to care in France is not limited to large capitals or the most publicized areas.
