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Patrick Pelloux (Emergency doctor)
Sunday March 10, a one-year-old girl brought by her father to the emergency room in Saintes, in Charente-Maritime, was refused entry to the building, even though she was in respiratory distress. How to explain such a situation? Patrick Pelloux, emergency doctor and spokesperson for the AMUF (association of emergency doctors of France).
Julien Daviaux, father of little Lou, only one year old, took her to the pediatric emergency room in the town of Saintes (Charente-Maritime) on the advice of her doctor and with a letter from him. The little girl is in respiratory distress due to bronchiolitis.
Refused to pediatric emergencies for lack of places
Once he arrived at the emergency room, Julien Daviaud was refused access and therefore treatment for his child, due to lack of space in the department. The pediatrician invites Julien Daviaud to go to Cognac or Rochefort, two neighboring towns. “Except that in Cognac, there is no pediatric service and in Rochefort, we could not find out if they had space.” explains Julien Daviaud to our colleagues from France 3 Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
A call to the Samu, who will intervene in the parking lot
Faced with the condition of his daughter, who is having more and more difficulty breathing, Julien Daviaud ends up dialing 15, to notify the Samu who will intervene in the parking lot. Today, the child is better, but his father wanted to publicize his story. “We feel anger, incomprehension. We wonder how in France, in 2024, we can be led to close our eyes to vital emergencies due to lack of space” he asks.
Dr Patrick Pelloux: “We are slowly heading towards a huge catastrophe”
To understand how this type of situation could have arisen, Doctissimo interviewed Dr Patrick Pelloux, president of the association of emergency doctors in France (MUF).
He first denounces the fact that a patient, even sent by a doctor – which is the case of this little girl – cannot access emergency services. “The government’s message is to make people believe that people go to the emergency room for nothing, we would like to send them elsewhere, but there is no other place than the emergency room to receive them!” he exclaims. “This is proof that an airlock system, with a switchboard and calling for emergencies instead of going there, has limits!“.
According to him, it is no longer two-tier medicine that we are creating, “we broke the public hospital and it no longer has the means to meet needs, with emergency services closing at night, for example. And it is the poorest and most precarious – who are also the sickest – who will toast first.” he warns.
Before concluding on a sobering note: “It seems like no one really realizes it, but we’re slowly heading towards a huge catastrophe.”