2023-08-09 05:44:35
Instead of going directly to the hospital, patients are called to first dial the Samu number. A solution that has its limits, and that does not convince health professionals.
After a certain hour, please don’t get hurt once more. In order to cope with a glaring lack of staff and “an unprecedented crisis”, more and more French hospitals are making the painful choice to close their emergency services at night.
A crisis aggravated by the decision of many temporary workers to no longer come to work in the emergency room following the Ministry of Health capped the amount of guards at 1,390 euros gross for 24 hours, once morest 5,000 previously.
The closure of emergency services has very concrete consequences. In Gassin, in the Var department, a mother brought her son with an ankle injury. Arrived on site, impossible to see a doctor, or even to access the service.
“Emergencies close at 6:30 p.m., so we don’t have the right to hurt ourselves followingwards otherwise we are sent elsewhere. It’s a bit special all the same”, she reacts to BFMTV.
Call 15
In Mayenne, three hospitals are affected by the closure of emergencies. While patients are invited to first dial 15, the Samu number, before potentially being taken care of, Eric Alban Giroux, director of one of the hospitals concerned, recalls the importance of this regulation.
“It’s having for the population, permanently, or whether on the territory, someone on the phone who will tell you what you have and if it requires, or does not require, a visit to the emergency room. is that what is important, that we give an answer to the populations”, he argues.
However, in some cases, the response of the 15th is far too late. A patient who suffered from respiratory failure tells us regarding his long minutes on the phone, without obtaining a clear diagnosis or precise indication.
“I was anxious, I was worried, I was even on the verge of hanging up to come directly to the emergency room because I really had difficulty breathing. I had an eye that was starting to turn red, so it was starting to long,” he recalls.
This question of the response time is a major issue in several regions, while the government wishes to make the 15 a new gateway to care. In Hauts-de-France, there is great concern regarding the most serious pathologies.
“A patient who has a myocardial infarction and who loses 30 minutes having to go to Valenciennes is still a major vital risk,” said a nurse.
Ineffective response?
Last June, before the summer season during which visits to the emergency room are more frequent, the Ministry of Health recommended dialing 15, a number being gradually transformed into a “care access service”.
But this strategy is not effective in relieving congestion in emergencies, according to Patrick Pelloux, president of the association of emergency physicians in France. “Telling people to call before going to the emergency room doesn’t work,” he said.
As for the promise made by Emmanuel Macron last April to unclog all emergency services “by the end of next year”, “it does not take all the way”, according to Patrick Pelloux, who believes that the hospital is going through “an absolutely unprecedented crisis”.
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