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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
Deploring an excessive lack of staff, the Regional Health Agency of Centre-Val de Loire has decided to close the emergency services of Gien hospital for 6 months. But promises the establishment of a teleconsultation cabin, a decision that makes our medical director react.
Faced with a system that is deteriorating throughout the territory, announcements of the closure of emergency services are linked, in all regions. But if some services close “a few nights”, for others, the delays are much longer. The Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Centre-Val de Loire announced on February 27, a 6-month closure, from March 1 to September, between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m., for the Gien hospital.
Too many vacancies to stay open
The ARS ensures that this decision will be temporary and is motivated by an excessive lack of personnel. According to the management of the hospital, at present, nine nursing positions out of twenty-four are indeed vacant. “We are also missing 20% of doctors. We have all come to the end of what we could do. And the nights are destabilizing and massacring for health”advances Yves Lemée, the head of the emergency-Smur pole of the establishment, on a daily basis The Parisian.
The Gien hospital is looking for a total of nine nurses and three doctors just for the emergency department. “In total, about thirty positions are unfilled throughout the establishment”, specifies Francis Cammal, mayor of Gien to the newspaper.
In this context, how to get proper treatment, wonder the inhabitants nearby? The head of the emergency department assures him, “the SMUR will also continue to intervene if necessary, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”. For its part, the ARS promises the establishment of a teleconsultation cabin, operational from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
“Our health system is in the process of becoming third-worldized”
A situation that does not fail to make Dr Gérald Kierzek, himself an emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo, react.
“All of this, from closing to the teleconsultation cabin, is a scandal. It is already a scandal to close emergency services for lack of staff, when everything has been done to scare away health professionals and not to recruit. Today, there is no medical project, no attractiveness measures, recruitment difficulties… Temporary workers quickly become the scapegoats of this system while they make it possible to run services. Here we are at the stage after closing, with emergencies replaced by a teleconsultation cabin!”.
Far from being a satisfactory solution, the teleconsultation booth is a completely irrelevant proposition for the doctor: “Installing a cabin in a third world country without medical services, yes, that’s progress. But not in a country like ours, instead of a structured offer, it’s a regression!”.
In general, the emergency physician recalls that teleconsultation must be integrated into a course of care, and not be approached “instead” of a service, but in addition.
“We have made enormous progress in terms of care, improvement in mortality, morbidity in many pathologies… But today, our health system is in the process of being “third-worldized” . Moreover, we forget that medicine is about humanity, about proximity, about examining people, listening to them… Is health still a priority in this country? Obviously not!”