2023-08-18 15:35:03
Closures of services even in the areas most frequented by tourists, mobile SAMU units at a standstill: this summer, the emergency crisis ” is worse “ that in 2022, alert the emergency workers who are struggling to cope in the services “who resist”.
Very present in recent days in the media, the main representatives of emergency physicians, from the Association of Emergency Physicians of France to SAMU-Urgences de France (SUdf), have expressed concern that the crisis is now affecting “all departments”from small to large services, to “extremely touristic areas”. Invited on Franceinfo, the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau repeated on the contrary that the situation was not ” worse “ than last summer, ensuring that “the hospital will cope”.
“We have never experienced such a scale of emergency structure closures”, says Agnès Ricard-Hibon, spokesperson for the French Society of Emergency Medicine. Emblematic case, the emergency reception of Saint-Tropez (Var), star seaside resort of the Côte d’Azur, remained closed for three nights in August, the hospital ensuring by press release that it had ” All “ tried to avoid this “extreme situation”.
Shortage of emergency physicians, temporary workers, paramedics, downstream beds… “Alerts are coming from everywhere”, laments Dr. Ricard-Hibon. Head of the Val-d’Oise SAMU, she has “learned on Tuesday of the night closure, for fifteen days, of an Ile-de-France service”.
Psychiatry “collapses”
A SMUR (mobile emergency and resuscitation service) from Hauts-de-Seine transferred an infant suffering from bronchiolitis to Rouen on Sunday, for lack of a bed in pediatric intensive care in Ile-de-France. The situation has been since “back to normal”according to the Regional Health Agency. “There are few beds because fortunately there are few needs. There, we were in a period where they combined” holidays and sick leave, explained the Minister of Health to Franceinfo, referring to this case.
“The worst days were the August 15 bridge”says Dominique Savary, head of emergencies at the Angers University Hospital and SUdf representative: in the Pays-de-la-Loire, “four services were closed”in addition to “six lines of SMUR at a standstill” and a helicopter “not functional” In Nantes.
“The pressure falls on the services that resist, at the cost of major overtime”the SMURs having to move “much further” and parry “at most serious”. In an area where psychiatry ” collapses “emergency physicians also saw psychiatric patients “in serious condition arriving from Sarthe, 100 kilometers away”says Mr. Savary.
“In some areas” especially in tourist areas, “The tension is extremely strong”recognized Monday the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau. “I am not saying that the situation is satisfactory” more “Compared to last year, (…) we managed to anticipate some of these situations”, “Today we don’t have an emergency service that closes every hour”he argued.
To maintain ” the essential “vital emergencies, the authorities enjoin the population to “always call” the city offices or the 15 before moving.
Filtering has become the rule
If the figures vary a lot, the minister delegate in charge of the health professions, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, indicated on August 3 that the services “actually closed” remained rare, « 18 % » functioning “with regulation”that is to say with the obligation to call 15 to be taken care of.
Online courses, evening courses, workshops: develop your skills
Discover
Filtering has become the rule in all hospitals in Mayenne, Manche, in several Breton towns such as Carhaix (Finistère), or at night in Dax, Pau or Niort. At the CHU Pellegrin in Bordeaux, it is applied 24 hours a day and patients presenting spontaneously are turned away, notes Julien Dulou, caregiver and representative of Sud-Santé Sociaux. Among these patients, serious cases but also “people who try by all means to enter, by overplaying”. By triaging patients, “we are not immune to error”deplores on condition of anonymity an emergency doctor from the CHU.
The hospital is not “more attractive”have long claimed emergency workers, pleading to bring regarding the revaluation of night and weekend guards, promised by Emmanuel Macron.
For Jean-François Cibien, president of the inter-union Action practitioner hospital, the regulation “is a solution”provided that the « forces vives » : the medical regulation assistants – first to drop out of the SAMU – on strike in three quarters of the territory. Understaffed, they have in places “+ 45% activity, without any valuation”he laments, calling on the ministry to give them the ” risk premium “ that they claim.
The heat wave expected over the next few days might further suffocate services. Nineteen departments are placed on Friday in heat wave orange vigilance by Météo-France, a heat stroke which should further intensify.
1692424773
#Heat #wave #threatens #strained #hospital