Pont-à-Mousson. Cancer: a new consultation service opens at the local hospital

In these times when the means of French public hospitals are widely questioned, particularly their human resource capabilities, the arrival of a new service offered locally to residents is always excellent news. This is the case with the announcement, within the Pont-à-Mousson hospital, Place Colombé, of the opening of oncohematology consultations. Under the supervision of Professor Pierre Feugier, a leading expert in hematology, notably head of the dedicated department at the Nancy University Hospital , it is Dr. Caroline Ziegler who offers these consultations, every Thursday morning. "The attending physician, who is the starting point for all care, can do an initial blood test, and it is he who then refers the patients to us," explains Dr. Ziegler, a specialist in blood diseases. She divides her working time between Pont-à-Mousson and the Nancy University Hospital, the parent company of the GHT (territorial hospital group) Sud-Lorraine hospital centers. With these groupings, patient care is made easier. "I do consultations in Pont-à-Mousson, the person no longer needs to go to Metz or Nancy, I come to them, which eliminates potential problems, particularly mobility problems," continues Dr. Ziegler. "And if the patient needs more intensive care, the continuation of the care is done in Nancy, still with me." And for consultations during treatment, or post-treatment, the patient can again consult in Pont-à-Mousson, and therefore still with ^Dr. Ziegler.

The establishment of these new consultations comes in the wake of the creation of the SMR (medical and rehabilitation care) service in oncohematology , also within the Pont-à-Mousson hospital. This new SMR service is part of the care pathway between full hospitalization care in cancerology, and the home hospitalization service (HAD). Concretely, the SMR welcomes patients who cannot return home between two chemotherapies due to a general condition that is too precarious, fragile patients who cannot return home after hospitalization, or patients who cannot benefit from retraining close to home, which the SMR can provide them with with a technical platform and specialists. When it was inaugurated at the end of 2023, this service was only the second of its type to exist in all of France after that of the AP-HP (Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris) hospitals.