2023-09-05 23:55:44
The waiting time in the emergency services of the Center Hospitalier Universitaire de Martinique has been increasing for 3 weeks. It takes an average of 6 hours to be treated. A situation that worries the medical staff who are struggling to be effective in the face of the influx of patients.
This is not the first time that the emergency department of the Martinique University Hospital has been under tension. Today, September 5, 2023, we are still a long way from the chaotic situation during the Covid-19 epidemic.
But for healthcare professionals, “there are emergencies in the emergency services of Martinique“despite numerous campaigns by the ARS to make the public aware of calling the dispatch service on the 15th before automatically going to the hospital.
The peaks are of the order of 180 visits per day to the emergency room of Fort de France and 60 to the hospital of Trinité.
Emergencies at the Martinique University Hospital (Archives) • ©Marc-François Calmo
Why this high attendance for 3 weeks?
Several factors would be involved according to the emergency doctors.
The first, put forward by health professionals, is the progression of the dengue fever epidemic. The increase in suggestive cases is around 21% in one week with 32 visits to the emergency room which triggered 5 hospitalizations (Source Santé Publique France 09/01/2023). The second is due to the reappearance of Covid. We are a long way from the situation of the health crisis, but this impacts services.
We are not here to scare the population, but we find in our services people with respiratory problems who require special monitoring because we know that they might very quickly switch to a more serious condition.
Doctor Yannick Broust, Head of the Emergency Department at the CHUM
Interviewed by Corinne Jean Joseph and François Marlin
The third is cyclical, the peaks of heat and pollution of the moment cause discomfort for populations at risk such as the elderly who constitute a large population in Martinique.
To avoid crowds, city doctors believe that their patient care works and that it is not the cause of emergency room congestion. They regret, on the other hand, the lack of organization between the emergencies and the town doctors which leads to dysfunctions for an effective and rapid care of the patients.
An organizational protocol is in progress with the ARS to organize upstream and avoid clogging the emergencies, it is also necessary that the emergency doctors play the game by coordinating with the health organizations of the liberals.
Doctor Criquet Hayot President of the Regional Union of Liberal Physicians of Martinique,
Interviewed by Corinne Jean-Joseph and François Marlin
Another aspect that is mentioned by health trade unionists, and which might explain the long wait in emergencies, is the lack of staff.
From the capping of medical interim rates, many university hospitals are less attractive…
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