2024-08-23 14:11:06
As the summer vacation draws to a close, the outgoing government and the trainees’ union share the same view of the emergency during this traditionally complex period: a constant tension caused mainly by a lack of manpower. The consensus ends here. On the one hand, the situation has improved in two years under the influence of post-epidemic measures. On the other hand, the latter see their situation as having significantly worsened, with elderly patients having to wait for more than 10 hours in Brest, for example.
Frédéric Valletoux, the resigning Minister of Health, noted that around 50 of France’s 650 emergency services are under strain. “That’s still too many,” he admitted in an interview with Echos, “but it’s better than two years ago. » The reference to 2022 is not insignificant: the executive then launched an emergency mission, compounded by the fatigue of nursing staff due to the summer holidays and the coronavirus pandemic. It was entrusted to François Braun, then an emergency doctor and later minister, who ultimately gave the order to take the measures.
‘A long road’
Among them, the upgrade of guards has been ongoing since then, according to Frédéric Valletoux. The private medical supervision system Care Access Service (SAS) has been installed in 93% of departments. It will be fully deployed by the end of this year. “It is still recent, but the first returns, such as in Finistere, show that it can ease emergencies,” he continued.
He said the situation remained dire in many places, but was improving in many others. “It’s been a long road, we are at a critical juncture and certain measures are starting to work,” the minister said. What’s more, the section of the December law setting out a new division of responsibilities between clinics and hospitals will ease pressure at night, on weekends and even on public holidays.
“Watered down communication as in previous years”, “soothing words” on the ground, “the announcement effect”… Dr. Marc Neuzer, president of the French Sam-Elgens Union, paints an even darker picture. The organization is waiting for the results of the annual survey on September 15 to draw the data, but one thing is certain: more than 50 services are under strain.
“The situation is very different, but I think that if we accumulate all the facilities, there is no doubt that the trend will be a general deterioration,” he said in an interview with Quotidien of the doctor. The emergency crisis? A crisis in which “the health system collapses everywhere”. “We have restored everything that others have not been able to do. But if we strengthen the supply capacity of the city to manage patients and the specialists manage their active queues in a different way, we will have fewer patients in the emergency room,” he insisted.
No additional intern positions
There is less space in general, and therefore also less space for specialties, even if the Ministry of Education claims to have preserved the top priority specialties such as pediatrics or psychiatry, and assignments are allocated according to the exit rankings of the exams: students stand up to denounce injustices without being noticed by their representative associations.
“The number of vacancies each year corresponds to the number of students allocated. What’s more, the failure rate remains below 2%. We will have students back next year,” said Frédéric Valletoux. With the dematerialisation allocation process starting this Friday, no further positions will be open. Moreover, he added, doing so would also have a negative impact on general medicine or “small” university hospitals. It is up to the next government to review the 2019 reform.
1724485750
#Hospitals #summer #emergency #rooms #face #pressure
