Sarkozy hospital visit criticised

A HEALTH union has criticised what they see as over-the-top arrangements for a planned presidential visit to a hospital in a Paris suburb.

Sud-santé says the numerous security checks being planned at Villejuif, to the south of the city centre, will put the hospital under “siege conditions.”

The union has also criticised plans to organise a reception for 2,000 people in connection with the visit, which is expected to cost €200,000 – or “at least eight nurses’ annual salaries.”

President Sarkozy has been invited to visit to mark the hospital’s 2,500th liver transplant.

The local prefecture said in a statement there was a similar presidential visit (by François Mitterrand) for a previous milestone. They had invited Sarkozy to give the occasion “all the dignity that it merits.”

If the visit is confirmed then the hospital will need to “put in place all the usual security measures which are used for any presidential visit,” the statement said.

Photo: Medef