"It's been about a year": In this Antibes health center, elevator breakdowns are complicating the daily lives of staff and patients

"For about a year, all three elevators have been breaking down regularly... Almost every day. One has even been out of service for nine months..."

The caregivers at the Antibes Saint-Jean center (formerly the Monsinéry center) are fed up. Their daily work is complicated by all these breakdowns. The situation is exhausting the employees, who wished to speak anonymously. "We have to manage everything, it's enormous... It's wasting our time, we have to run everywhere. It's horrible."

Recently, several people were reportedly stuck in the elevator for 45 minutes before firefighters came to help them. "At one point, they put two chairs in the elevator so people could sit on it, in case it broke down..."

Patients who are afraid of getting stuck

Among the approximately ninety patients, spread over two levels, some no longer dare take the elevator for fear of getting stuck. So, to get to the ground floor, they choose to take the stairs or, for those on the first floor, to go through an outside courtyard. But "it's a long way around for them... Poor things, they have to walk a lot."

Better still, during the night of June 2nd to 3rd (from the previous evening until early morning), all three elevators broke down at the same time. None of them were working. Breakfast trays had to be brought up to patients in their rooms by the stairs… For about five days, management therefore chose to close the dining room and serve the trays in their rooms (this time, delivered by elevators using specially designed trolleys). A situation that was not well received by patients… And for people with reduced mobility who were unable to move around, physiotherapy treatments, which are normally provided on the ground floor, in a dedicated room, had to be provided in their rooms.

A petition that collected 70 signatures

"They say they've ordered the parts, but it's taking a long time... And in the meantime, we're paying," sighs a patient, exasperated by the situation. So, in an attempt to get things moving, a petition was launched and has collected seventy signatures! The petition, presented to the director of the establishment as well as to the mayor of Antibes, Jean Leonetti, aims to draw attention to "the worrying situation within the care center" , due to the "numerous recurring elevator breakdowns" which "compromise access to care" . "We're doing it for the patients, but above all to relieve the staff..."

The out-of-service elevator was repaired in mid-July?

"It's true that we had an elevator breakdown from June 2 to June 3. An evening when we were inconvenienced and breakfast had to be served in the room," explains Madame Pastor, Deputy Director General at Pôle Santé Saint-Jean. "For 2 or 3 hours, it was not possible for about ten patients to go downstairs... Apart from this morning, when we had to take the breakfast trays to the rooms, by the stairs, we were not disturbed more than that..."

As for the in-room physiotherapy, "it's just about ten dependent patients on the second floor who received physiotherapy in their rooms and the hallway. This is common practice in other clinics..." And the people stuck in the elevator for 45 minutes? "No, they were stuck for about 20 minutes," she insists. "It's understandable that elevator breakdowns have led to complaints. The director will organize a meeting very soon to explain the situation to the patients."

And announce that the elevator, out of service for almost a year, will be repaired on July 14th...