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Dr Joachim Müllner (Psychiatrist)
A patient hospitalized in the psychiatric emergency room of the Purpan University Hospital in Toulouse committed suicide on Wednesday February 14, 2024. How can this tragedy be explained? Explanations from Dr Joachim Mullner, psychiatrist and member of the Doctissimo expert committee.
This is yet another tragedy affecting the psychiatry sector. A patient hospitalized in the psychiatric emergency consultation department of the Purpan University Hospital, in Toulouse, killed himself on Wednesday February 14. The information was confirmed by the management of the establishment, who added that the man was discovered the same morning around 8:30 a.m. and that, despite the intervention of a doctor, he could not be resuscitated.
Ten days spent strapped to a stretcher
According to information reported by our colleagues from France 3, the man spent ten days on a stretcher, tied up, in a 3m² office, due to lack of hospital space.
“It was stored there.” explains a South union delegate to our colleagues at La Dépêche. “Due to lack of places, patients remain in the emergency room. It is not the fault of the caregivers but of the ARS (Regional Health Agency) which does not take its responsibilities. Normally they would only stay there for a few hours, but more often it lasts two or three days or even more.”.
The CHU also confirms its presence “for several days” and specifies that a “transfer to a downstream structure was in progress“. After his suicide, psychological support for the family of the deceased and the staff present was put in place.
Decisions taken by the ARS
But this is not the first time that tragedy has occurred. The Regional Health Agency has also just taken several decisions: an additional psychiatrist will be present on weekends in the emergency room of the Purpan University Hospital, replacements will be provided in the event of absence and a coordination unit for public and private establishments will ensure that the hospitalization of patients after their visit to the emergency room is accelerated.
To better understand the crisis that the psychiatry sector is currently going through, Doctissimo interviewed Dr. Joachim Mullner, psychiatrist at Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. For him, this is a “absolutely tragic and totally unacceptable situation in a country with such economic power“.
“The situation in psychiatric hospitals and emergency rooms was already complicated, it is today and since Covid, quite dramatic. Due to a lack of caregivers, beds are closed in all hospitals throughout France and this therefore leads to this type of unacceptable situation where a patient waits for a bed for 10 days.”
In addition “lack of resources, poor working conditions and indecent salaries of caregivers“, the doctor reminds us that the solutions found by the authorities are not always the right ones.”There are so many difficulties finding beds to hospitalize patients from the emergency room that the ARS has created a regulatory unit specially dedicated to this. But the cell is open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. which leads to the bad reflex of no longer looking for places at night while waiting for the cell to take over in the morning. And above all, if this cell helps caregivers not to spend their time on the phone rather than treating patients, it does not have the power to create beds.”.
Before concluding with the fact that everyone must feel concerned by the future of Health in France. “It is high time that the French seriously asked themselves the question of the future of health in France. If the idea is that the richest can afford quality care in a timely manner and the rest of the population has to bear seeing a health system deteriorate to the point where people commit suicide in public emergency rooms due to lack of space hospitalization, then it’s perfect, here we are.”