2023-09-06 05:18:08
The situation of emergency services and SMURs has “continued to deteriorate” during the summer of 2023 to reach a voltage “unprecedented”, deplores the Samu-Urgences de France union in a report published on Wednesday.
“The system gives the illusion of having held up” the union said in a statement. “But the reception and care conditions are profoundly altered. The working conditions have become unbearable and inhuman for our exhausted professionals. Health security is sometimes no longer guaranteed, including for life-threatening emergencies”.
The union, which regrets “the absence of centralized collection” data on the difficulties encountered by the services, carried out a survey of the mobile emergency and resuscitation services (SMUR) and emergencies itself on the working conditions observed in July and August.
“This year, almost all departments are concerned”
According to this assessment, relating to “more than half” of the 680 emergency structures in France, 163 emergency departments closed at least once during the two summer months, while 166 SMURs closed at least one unit over the period.
“The novelty is that last year, it was a few departments here and there. This year, almost all departments are concerned”, stressed to AFP Marc Noizet, president of the union and head of emergencies and the Samu of Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin).
Similarly, 157 emergency services say they have closed at least one medical line, in connection with the strong tensions on the availability of emergency doctors, in particular since April 2023 and the entry into force of the Rist law on medical interim.
In Provence, the example of Manosque illustrates these difficulties
In Provence, the emergencies of Manosque are in great difficulty: since January 9, 2022, they have been almost closed for half or even 3/4 of the month at night – even for whole days.
To return to the whole of France, “There are a lot of services that hold an operation at arm’s length, with fewer doctors to welcome patients”says Dr. Noizet. “It’s catastrophic in terms of waiting times, patient safety, team exhaustion and quality of care.”
“Five were completely closed this summer, around forty had to close punctually”
Concerning the SAMU-Centres 15, three-quarters of them say they needed reinforcements from medical regulation assistants (ARM), but a third might not find any.
“There must be recognition of the seriousness of the situation, and there must be investments, in particular in hospital attractiveness”, claimed Marc Noizet.
In particular, the union is asking “fluidify the downstream of emergencies”, by increasing the number of hospital beds, to increase the salaries of care services carried out at night or on weekends, or even to strengthen the services regulating access to emergencies.
During a press conference on Tuesday, the French Hospital Federation (FHF) for its part estimated that the situation of emergency services has deteriorated in 41% of establishments compared to 2022, and that access to hospital beds deteriorated in one year in 52% of establishments.
The Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, presented other figures. “We have 680 emergency services in France, 5 were completely closed this summer, around forty had to close punctually”he assured Tuesday morning on France 2.
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