French Government’s investment plan acknowledges the healthcare sector

On 25 September, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe presented the five-year investment plan for 2018-2022 with total funds of €57.1 billion over that period. Under this five-year initiative, healthcare in general, and the hospital sector in particular, is set to benefit from an envelope of €4.9 billion.

€4.9 billion for healthcare

Over the next five years, the Government is aiming to radically transform the healthcare offer, whilst maintaining excellence. This is to be achieved, in the Prime Minister’s own words, by breaking down the compartmentalisation between actors, but also by addressing social and regional inequalities in healthcare.
The planned 4.9 billion investment will be split between hospital buildings, digitalisation in hospitals, care homes, telemedicine, coordinating healthcare teams in towns and cities, and developing artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

Details of the investment in healthcare

• €3 billion for hospital renovations. Hospital walls now also set to benefit from a facelift. The five-year investment plan will effectively support “the adaptation of the technical equipment and buildings needed to reconfigure the healthcare offer, with the aim of securing greater capacities, delivered more locally and with better efficiency in using the resources allocated”. Cost of operations: €3 billion.

• €1 billion for digital transformation of the healthcare system. “Accelerating the digital transition of the healthcare system” is the object of Initiative 23, given that “digital transformation of how the healthcare offer is organised is a primary lever in responding to the challenges in our regions”. The backdrop to this is the desire to reduce the digital divide between the various actors in the healthcare system, both professionals and users. In total, €1 billion will be committed to these requirements.
Specifically, the challenges lie in digitalising hospitals and their environment with, at its heart, a programme with funding of €420 million to follow on from the Digital Hospital (Hôpital numérique) programme.
A further aim is securing better-coordinated patient handling, involving all healthcare professionals, in towns and cities, in hospitals, in the patient’s own home or in care homes. This will be delivered via an e-training programme with € 130 million in funding over the period 2018-2022 which, amongst other things, will facilitate the exchange of information between healthcare professionals.

• €400 million for care homes. Because they “encourage care provision locally in shortage areas and facilitate better gradation of the healthcare offer in the regions”, the five-year investment plan will finance a doubling of the number of care homes and health centres in the regions with, at its heart, €400 million invested over five years.

• Other investment envelopes. In addition, € 50 million will be used to support the universal roll-out of telemedicine to boost the medical presence in the regions, and particularly in rural areas and overseas territories.
Lastly, a further aim is to develop an artificial intelligence strategy in the healthcare sector. To that end, €100 million will be invested to exploit the major public healthcare databases and to promote AI tools capable of improving preventive medicine, diagnostics, treatment and monitoring for patients.

From announcements to actions

Firms of architects and planners, software companies and e-health service providers will be first in line for realisations linked to this investment plan. All of these will be gathering at the forthcoming Paris Healthcare Week next May, an ideal opportunity for the entire healthcare ecosystem to come together.

With “Architecture in the spotlight”, here are three events that will contribute to discussions relating to hospital renovation: Hospital 21, the annual seminar of the Public Health working group of the International Union of Architects; Art of D.A.T.E, three keynote addresses attracting the greatest international experts; and The Architects’ Village, which will host major players in hospital architecture.

Moreover, the digital transformation of the healthcare system, along with telemedicine and artificial intelligence, will be at the heart of Salon HIT, the leading event for IT and e-health, featuring 250 exhibitors and also around fifty round table events devoted to these contemporary issues.