Healthcare Crisis Looms in New Caledonia as Staff Exodus Follows 2024 Riots

 Koné, May – The surgical ward of Koné Hospital in northern New Caledonia lies eerily silent—beds neatly made but empty, devoid of patients, staff, or the hum of medical equipment. The ward has been out of service since May 2024, when violent riots swept through the French Pacific archipelago, triggering a mass exodus of healthcare workers. Isabelle Delbergue, the hospital’s care coordinator, reports that 10 of the 44 nurses have already left, with another recently declining to renew her contract. “The schedule is like playing Tetris,” Delbergue laments, describing the struggle to manage with a dwindling staff dubbed “the survivors.”

The broader medical community has not been spared. Bruno Calandreau, president of the Nouméa Medical Association, notes a drop in registered doctors from 1,019 to 875 since May 2024—a loss of 144 practitioners, many of whom had served the region for decades. Reasons for their departure often center on a loss of trust and fears for their families’ safety, with some doctors citing traumatic experiences during the unrest, including threats from rioters and destruction of their clinics. One nephrologist fled within a month after flames engulfed her building, while 23 doctors saw their offices burned, looted, or vandalized.

A survey by the Quidnovi Institute, commissioned by the Federation of Liberal Health Professionals, revealed that 50% of 600 health workers considered leaving, with 17% planning to do so within the year; 23% reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The territorial health authority lists urgent vacancies: 253 nurses, 82 doctors, 22 physiotherapists, and more. Kevin Ory, a psychiatric nurse who relocated to Dordogne, France, after 18 years in New Caledonia, described the riots as a “catalyst,” recalling being surrounded by machete-wielding rioters. “I didn’t want to keep enduring this,” he said, though he admits to occasional guilt for “abandoning a sinking ship.”

The Chamber of Commerce estimates 13,000 residents—5% of the population—have left since the riots, a figure pending confirmation by an ongoing census. Calandreau warns of an impending “healthcare catastrophe,” predicting a descent into “underdeveloped medicine” as the archipelago struggles to retain and attract medical professionals amidst an uncertain future.