Toulouse stands out for two fields: cancer care, brought together at the IUCT-Oncopole, and healthy ageing, led by the Gérontopôle and the IHU HealthAge. Around them, Toulouse University Hospital (CHU de Toulouse) adds organ transplantation, rare diseases and close to 5,000 births in 2025.
Toulouse hospitals at a glance
If you trained as a nurse, doctor or therapist elsewhere in the European Union and are weighing up French cities, Toulouse is easy to read. Hospital care rests on three connected hubs: the university hospital, a cancer institute run jointly with a specialist cancer centre, and the La Grave hospital site, home to the city's work on ageing.
| Institution | Main field | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| CHU de Toulouse | General university hospital, transplantation, rare diseases | 17,029 staff and 2,983 beds and day places in 2025, according to the hospital |
| IUCT-Oncopole | Cancer care | Joint venture owned equally by the CHU and the Oncopole Claudius Regaud, opened in 2014 |
| Gérontopôle and IHU HealthAge | Ageing and preventing loss of independence | Based at La Grave hospital; HealthAge was selected in 2023 as an "emerging" IHU |
| CRCT | Cancer research | Inserm, CNRS and university research centre on the Oncopole site |
The CHU's key figures for 2025 list 2,983 beds and day places (2,188 beds and 795 day places), 316,793 hospital stays and 231,584 emergency department visits. Its 2025 annual report breaks down the workforce: 12,388 non-medical staff, 1,581 senior doctors, and 1,495 residents and junior doctors in training.
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Cancer care: the IUCT-Oncopole model
The Toulouse University Cancer Institute (IUCT-Oncopole) is a healthcare cooperation group owned in equal shares by the CHU and the Oncopole Claudius Regaud. The latter belongs to Unicancer, the French network of 18 cancer centres (centres de lutte contre le cancer, CLCC) plus 2 affiliated members. According to the IUCT-Oncopole's 2023 annual report, the institute opened in 2014 and had 308 beds, including 103 day places, with 2,175 staff on site.
In that 2023 report, the institute states that it holds the "Comprehensive Cancer Center" accreditation from the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI). For anyone coming from another European country, that is a familiar benchmark for comparing it with cancer centres back home.
Research next door
The Oncopole site also hosts the Cancer Research Centre of Toulouse (CRCT), run by Inserm, the CNRS and the university, with more than 400 people in 18 teams in 2023. The IUCT-Oncopole report describes the wider Campus Santé du Futur as bringing together more than 6,000 professionals across 220 hectares.
Day to day, this means care teams working alongside clinical research staff and laboratories. A nurse might discover day hospital work, care pathway coordination or supporting patients enrolled in clinical trials; a doctor will find research woven into routine practice. Which posts are open always depends on each team's needs when you apply.
Healthy ageing: the Gérontopôle and IHU HealthAge at La Grave
France funds a small number of hospital-university institutes, known as IHUs. HealthAge, in Toulouse, is one of the 12 selected in 2023 under the France 2030 programme, according to a summary by the French National Research Agency (ANR). The press kit of 16 May 2023 is more precise: HealthAge was one of two "emerging IHUs", alongside Infiny in Nancy, with funding of €5 million plus a further €5 million subject to conditions.
The Gérontopôle and IHU HealthAge are based at La Grave hospital. In its 2025 annual report, the CHU describes HealthAge as a "WHO collaborating centre" and states that more than 100,000 people are followed in ICOPE Monitor, the tool of the World Health Organization's ICOPE programme on integrated care for older people.
What this means in practice: geriatric care in Toulouse is not confined to hospital wards. It extends to spotting early loss of independence, long-term follow-up and research. Nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and aides-soignants who enjoy working with older people will find a strong focus on prevention here.
Transplants, rare diseases and births at the CHU
The CHU's 2025 annual report records 357 transplants, including 234 adult kidney transplants, 60 liver, 18 heart and 14 lung transplants. The hospital also runs 87 rare disease expert centres and recorded 4,944 births that year. In practice, roles vary a great deal from one department to the next: intensive care and post-transplant care, specialist outpatient clinics, delivery rooms, paediatrics.
Gateway to the Pyrenees: mountain emergency medicine
Toulouse is not a mountain city, yet it trains doctors for rescue work at altitude. The University of Toulouse, in partnership with Grenoble, runs a two-year inter-university diploma in mountain emergency medicine. It is open to medical doctors who qualified in France, in the EU or outside the EU, with placements covering cliff rescue, caving, avalanches, helicopter work and high mountains.
Which healthcare professionals is Toulouse for?
- Doctors: a university hospital training nearly 1,500 residents and junior doctors, cancer care at the IUCT-Oncopole, geriatrics and ageing research, transplantation and rare diseases.
- Nurses: oncology and day hospital care, post-transplant care, prevention-minded geriatrics, and an emergency department that recorded more than 230,000 visits in 2025.
- Midwives: a busy birth service at the CHU, with 4,944 births in 2025.
- Physiotherapists and occupational therapists: rehabilitation and preserving independence, central to the Gérontopôle's approach, as well as support for people living with cancer.
- Aides-soignants: a key role with older patients and on inpatient wards, in cancer care as in general medicine. A care assistant qualification from another country does not automatically entitle you to work as an aide-soignant in France: see our guide for aides-soignants.
These are working environments, not a list of vacancies: recruitment happens department by department.
Everyday life in Toulouse
Toulouse is the regional capital of Occitanie, a large university city on the Garonne, within reach of the Pyrenees. The CHU, the IUCT-Oncopole and La Grave are spread across the metropolitan area, so check commuting times between your future workplace and your home before signing a lease, especially if you will work night or weekend shifts.
To plan your move, read our guide to settling in France as an EU healthcare worker and our article on finding housing in France. For pay, see our article on healthcare salaries in France.
From idea to application
How you qualify to practise in France depends on your profession and your diploma. Start with the guide for your profession, then read our general guide to working in France with an EU healthcare qualification.