Mayotte: Health Minister seeks to facilitate medical evacuations by establishing a "one-stop shop"

Health Minister Yannick Neuder announced this Thursday, May 15, at the National Assembly the establishment "by the end of July" in Mayotte of a "one-stop shop" to facilitate the medical evacuation of patients, "based on the model already in place" in Corsica.

Mayotte MP Estelle Youssouffa immediately hailed this as a "very important step forward for those covered by social security," and announced that she was withdrawing her bill, which was being discussed in the chamber. This bill, whose adoption was uncertain, aimed to establish state medical assistance for illegal immigrants in Mayotte, with the aim of relieving hospital congestion.

In her opening remarks, Liot, a member of parliament from the independent group, described a hospital that was saturated, forcing residents needing "complex care" or "to see a specialist" to resort to medical evacuations, known as Evasan, to Réunion or mainland France.

"You have to have a sufficient chance of survival, enough places to be selected by a medical committee," she explained about what she called a system of "outsourcing the health of the Mahorais" organized by the "Ministry of Health."

Yannick Neuder spoke after him, and declared that "for so-called urgent evacuations, the hospital will continue to manage the evacuation of patients."

But "for so-called scheduled evacuations after prior agreement," a "one-stop shop managed by the Mayotte Social Security Fund" will be set up, he said.

"Work is already underway," involving the ARS and city professionals, he added, "to set up this system (...) which is easily identifiable and accessible to the population."

To do this, he announced "the creation of a dedicated information system, the Evasan IT system."

The idea is to "quickly structure a solid referral system in Réunion in order to organize appointments, for example for cardiology or PET scans on an outpatient basis," he explained.

Yannick Neuder also said he wanted to consolidate healthcare provision in Mayotte, and recalled the "healthcare professional attraction and retention plan" announced in April. This includes, for example, "exceptional measures to facilitate the hiring of contract practitioners," he said.