Infant mortality has been increasing since 2012 in France. This is what reveals a report published on Monday, October 9, by the French Society of Neonatology (SFN), which warns of the increase in the death rate among newborns and expresses concern about the situation in intensive care units.
While it was in third position among the countries with the lowest infant mortality in Europe between 1996 and 2000, France is now in 20th place, notes the SFN in this document compiling the results of several surveys, in particular INSEE and INSERM. Among these deaths, 74% occurred in the “first month of life”, compared to 65% in 2005, underlines the learned society.
According to the president of the SFN, Jean-Christophe Rozé, these excess deaths are generally linked to “extreme prematurity”, or cases of infants born at term but “very sick”. Other hypotheses are put forward by the learned society, such as the advanced age of mothers, the increase in repeat pregnancies, or even a situation of precariousness.
Shortage of staff, lack of hospital beds
But, while medical and hospital staff continue to warn of the deterioration of intensive care and resuscitation services, the lack of places is also, and unsurprisingly, singled out by the report. 90% of beds would be continuously occupied.
“In intensive care, the occupancy rate is greater than 100% around 20% of the time, and the average rate exceeds 95% in almost half of the units,” details the report, which specifies that “23% of services say they refuse regularly critical entries due to lack of space.
Especially since, from one city to another, conditions are likely to vary. The “critical care” offer [soins intensifs et réanimation] is insufficient and unevenly distributed across the territory”, deplores the SFN. In neonatal intensive care, the number of beds “varies from single to double” in metropolitan regions. Between 0.6 per 1,000 births in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’ Azur and 1.28 per 1,000 in the Grand-Est.
Another scourge that is suffocating almost the entire health sector: the shortage of hospital staff. Like other services, neonatology is “understaffed with nurses”. Even more serious, in almost 80% of services, “at least a third of the nursing staff has less than two years of experience”. However, this is the seniority considered “necessary” for this type of care…