"This development stems from the national reform of healthcare authorizations": the Regional Health Agency explains the end of major operations at the Arnault Tzanck private hospital in Mougins

The Paca Regional Health Agency (ARS) has responded to the controversy surrounding the future of cancer surgery at the Arnault Tzanck Mougins private hospital. The facility will have to stop its so-called "complex" operations in digestive, urological, and gynecological cancer care as of September 1st. This decision is worrying patients and associations, and a petition against which has already gathered nearly 1,300 signatures in just a few days.

A national reform

The ARS recalls that this development "results from the national reform of care authorizations, adopted in 2022 as part of the Ten-Year Strategy to Fight Cancer" . This now distinguishes between "simple" surgery (grade A) and "complex" surgery (grade B), the latter to be concentrated "in a limited number of expert centers in order to guarantee patient safety and the recurrence of procedures for medical teams" .

Three permits refused to Tzanck

In this context, the private Arnault Tzanck Mougins hospital had requested 11 authorizations. It obtained eight, but three requests concerning complex surgeries (grades B1, B4, and B5) were rejected. These refusals were notified on April 27, with an extension until September 1, 2025, to ensure the care of patients already scheduled.

"The establishment thus has time to coordinate with the selected regional centers and refer patients who fall within the so-called complex profile," the ARS further specifies, which emphasizes that the A mention authorizations and the chemotherapy activity have been maintained, "making it possible to respond to local health needs."

Appeals in progress

The criteria used to grant the permits included the volume of activity, the frequency of multidisciplinary meetings, the size of the teams and the presence of an on-site intensive care unit. "The analysis was conducted in a concerted and collegial manner," the agency insists.

Appeals are currently being filed by the establishment, which believes that stopping these major operations represents a loss of opportunity for patients.

The medical association calls for a moratorium

The regional council of the order of physicians, through its president Dr. Hervé Cael, also reacted to this reform. For him, "this issue goes far beyond the framework of an isolated health establishment: it is the entire healthcare offering in our region that is threatened."

He is calling on the ARS Paca to impose a moratorium in order to extend current authorizations for cancer surgery beyond September 1, and not to rush the transition towards "an ultra-concentration of the provision of oncological care, unique in France" .

The president is calling for the opening of a regional debate bringing together public and private establishments, in order to "build together a genuine regional cancerology project, based on the complementarity of stakeholders, medical excellence and the primary interest of patients" .