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Emergency services close almost everywhere in France, sometimes temporarily for one night, sometimes for the weekend… How can this situation be explained? What conclusions can we draw, twenty years after the heat wave of summer 2003? The answers of Dr Patrick Pelloux, emergency physician and president of the association of emergency physicians of France.
Les Sables d’Olonne, Guebwiller, Montluçon, Bagnères-de-Bigorre… All these towns have seen or are seeing their emergency services close these days, whether for one night or a few days.
The Minister of Health reacts to this situation
Faced with the situation of the public hospital which continues to deteriorate, the new Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, wants to be reassuring. In interview given to our colleagues from Worldhe explains that we “cannot be satisfied, in our country, with having places where emergencies remain closed at night, it is not possible to make a lasting solution of this“.
Indeed, many hospitals were forced this summer to set up a mandatory call to 15 to access their emergency services, or even to temporarily close services, due to lack of staff.
Dr Patrick Pelloux: “It’s a debacle!”
When questioned, Dr. Patrick Pelloux, president of the association of emergency physicians in France, deplores the situation. “It’s a debacle! François Braun’s theory – to call 15 before going to the emergency room – could not work. People call, they are overwhelmed with illness, they end up insulting us because of the distress they are going through”.
How did we come to such a situation? “We cornered city medicine and the doctors who previously met their needs. These patients are abandoned today, it’s hopeless” admits Dr. Pelloux.
The same observation since 2003…
This despair is shared by emergency doctors, according to Patrick Pelloux. “In 2003, I gave interviews during the heat wave in which I already warned about the situation to come. Twenty years later, we realize the extent of the disaster: all the systems are now broken the figure !” again denounces the doctor.
Will the announcements of the Minister of Health be sufficient?
Faced with this crisis, Aurélien Rousseau announces in a few weeks, the perpetuation of a certain number of measures such as an upgrading of night and weekend guards, to make the status of hospital doctor more attractive.
“This should temporarily calm the situation.” believes Patrick Pelloux. But according to him, there are two concomitant problems: the lack of attractiveness of the health professions on the one hand and the training of these same professionals which tends to discourage too many students. “Today, there are 10 to 15% dropouts during medical studies and 30 to 40% in nursing studies. Let’s face it, there is a real problem in the training of personnel – doctors or nurses – and the academic world is struggling to face it“.