The MRI and the scanner will be based on… the old Post Office safe, Place de la Comédie in Montpellier

Le Dr Marie-Caroline Mas, locomotive du projet dans les 216 m2 de locaux. Midi Libre – T. J.

In the spring of 2025, the radiology practice on Boulevard Victor-Hugo will open new premises in place of the old post office, at the corner of the Comédie and the Esplanade. The seven tons that the MRI weighs will benefit from an unexpected ally since they will be placed on… the old bank safe.

At the corner of the Comédie and the Esplanade, an MRI and a scanner in place of the old post office. Midi Libre – Ateliers A+

An MRI and a scanner on the Place de la Comédie? Really? At a time when clinics are all moving away, and at great speed (Saint-Roch, Saint-Jean, du Parc, Clémentville…), from the city center, the project of Doctor Marie-Caroline Mas and her partners from Imacam and Imaneo (read elsewhere) is going against the tide. Their radiology practice is already well known on Boulevard Victor-Hugo, at the entrance to the Comédie tunnel, but they persist and sign. Next spring, at the end of March or beginning of April, they will have opened their new address, passage Bruyas, in place of the old post office.

“We need help”

The project was born in the mind of Dr. Mas. And has made its way. “Two years ago, in 2022, my associates and I said to ourselves: Boulevard Victor-Hugo is falling into disrepair, so either we leave or we evolve”, she explains. It was when she opened Midi Libre that she had the lightbulb moment: she read in an article that La Poste was closing shop. “I called the mayor's office and told them: that's what we need”. She then found allies. And a high-profile lawyer: the mayor himself, Michaël Delafosse, who spoke directly to the director of the Regional Health Agency, Didier Jaffre. “I had already contacted the town hall”, telling them: if you want our office to continue to operate in the city centre, you need to help us, you need to help us find premises” and premises where we can install heavy equipment.”

In the basement: a safe like a sarcophagus, reinforced concrete walls reinforced also on the ceiling and floor. Midi Libre – T. J.

The administrative side has been launched. But to make it a reality, there is still a long way to go. And a major obstacle. Or rather, a weighty one. Ten tons to be exact. Seven for the MRI, three for the scanner. And there, “the planets aligned”, Dr. Mas still smiles. “We were lucky enough to discover in the basement of the building, a box within a box as they say in architecture, made of reinforced concrete, with 40cm thick walls, with a ceiling and floor that were also reinforced, explains Gilles Gal, associate architect of Ateliers A +, in charge of the project.To install the MRI at the new Saint-Jean clinic, for example, special foundations were needed. In addition, luckily, this safe was well established in the basement and we can therefore rely on this block. Otherwise, we would have had to get into something very complicated, which could even have jeopardized the project."

400 kW, X-rays and TetrisTM

And the architect lists the solutions that had to be found. Installing an MRI and scanner in an old building in the heart of the city is not an easy thing. First: Enedis was able to connect the premises to a nearby transformer to supply them with the 400 kW required for this equipment. Second: to align with the Bâtiments de France and the Grand Cœur project for the exterior façade and, inside, to be able to meet the recommendations for containing X-rays. “It's classic, emphasizes Gilles Gal. The solution is lead, it keeps the rays inside the cabins”. And thirdly, it took "a little game of TetrisTM" in the 216 m2 of surface area "to install an MRI, a scanner, a waiting room, a reception area, toilets and five changing rooms, all while respecting the standards".

3.2 M€ invested, opening in spring 2025

A real preparatory work therefore. Now finished. This Monday, October 7, the workers will take possession of the premises at the corner of the Comédie and the Esplanade, in order to get the construction site up and running (connections, etc.). The heavier work is planned from October 21. For an opening of the radiology practice announced for the end of March-beginning of April and a total investment of 3.2 M€.

Radiology: a large association

Since 2022, many radiologists have joined forces to create the Imaneo group. In this case: CRP (installed at Clinique du Parc, ICM, Lunel, Montferrier), I-Seris (Clémentville, Clermont-l’Hérault, Pézenas) and Imacam (Victor-Hugo, Millénaire, Saint-Roch, Ganges, Lattes). In total, 68 radiologists, 28 heavy imaging equipment, 350 employees, 19 centers and 800,000 examinations carried out in 2022.

"The church in the middle of the village"

More than enough to satisfy Marie-Caroline Mas. For her, who comes from a family line of four generations of doctors, all trained at the Montpellier Faculty of Medicine, preserving medicine in the heart of the city is no coincidence. “Montpellier is the oldest medical faculty in the Western world, setting up on the Comédie is like putting the church in the middle of the village, it's the Eiffel Tower at the Trocadéro. Medicine in Montpellier is a religion. I am really attached to the city center and to the patients in the city center. We need to develop humane, local medicine." She admits that when she embarked on this slightly crazy project, she was a bit like "on a crusade". A daring bet, then, but one that is about to be won.

Also read: The Post Office on Place de la Comédie in Montpellier is (very soon) over

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