Twenty beds to deal with the needs
As explained by Charleroi Laurent Ciaccia’s social relay coordinator, the ambition is to create a structure with a capacity of 20 operational beds 24 hours a day. If there is in Brussels and Antwerp, this project would be a first in the south of the country.
According to the vice-president of the relay Christophe Thoreau, hospitals are faced with the rise of precariousness, in the same way as all the actors of social assistance. “”Hospitals can no longer finance the convalescence days in equity that INAMI no longer takes care of for audiences who no longer have a medical reason to extend their stay. However, among these audiences, there are homeless people that cannot be put on the street with their infusions, isolated people whose state requires care in good hygiene conditions. “The Medi-Halte aims to meet this need.
The project has already worked
As part of a call for projects under the previous government, the Charleroi health relay had set up such a residential care system, a pilot project. He worked for almost a year. In the absence of renewal of its funding, it has given way to a transient infrastructure, the shark that Halte, which has six beds. A guard is provided at night, but not a permanence. The will is to return to the model of the Medi-halt.
To bear the cost, contacts have been knotted with Inami. The project has been under study for almost 2 years. Even in the event of a subsidiation agreement, the medi-halt will need additional means: support from the Walloon government will prove to be essential to cover the charging bill (rent, heating, maintenance, meals), excluding inami funding.