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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
Due to a lack of hospital staff, no fewer than fifty French hospitals are currently under pressure, acknowledges Frédéric Valletoux, the resigning Minister of Health. How can we explain this situation in the summer, when no epidemic is underway? How can we remedy it? The frank answers of Dr. Gérald Kierzek, an emergency physician.
In the columns of West Francethe resigning Minister of Health, Fréderic Valletoux, returns to the difficulties of the public hospital in France. While he states that “around fifty establishments” are under pressure, he does not specify the number of establishments that had to close their doors completely or partially this summer. He prefers to see the glass as half full, arguing that “It’s a little better than last summer“and that”tensions are not as high as in 2022“.
A “wall of shame” in front of the emergency room of Brest University Hospital
Faced with this situation, the caregivers at Brest University Hospital wanted to make their mark. This Wednesday, August 21, they erected a “wall of shame” as they called it, made up of dozens of sheets summarizing elderly patients and their waiting time spent in the emergency room, on a stretcher.
For example, we can read that a 78-year-old patient spent 34 hours on a stretcher before being taken care of. These figures, put forward by the CGT, were quickly contested by the management of the Brest University Hospital, which claims that this does not mean “a lack of patient care“.
For Dr. Gérald Kierzek, emergency physician and medical director of Doctissimo, “management is trying to defuse the situation but no crisis communication can deny the reality of unworthy reception and care conditions in France in 2024“.
What are public hospitals suffering from today?
While we are not experiencing any major epidemics of the Covid-19 or bronchiolitis type, some French hospitals are suffering. In the Belfort region, the hospital has just triggered the white plan for the fifth time since 2023. Normally intended to deal with exceptional situations, these measures are becoming routine. How can this be explained?Once again, we are experiencing a structural crisis in hospitals, with hospital consolidations leading to closures of beds and services, putting pressure on establishments almost 365 days a year.” says Dr Gérald Kierzek indignantly.
“The latest measures as the Rist law have made the situation worse with department closures due to lack of staff and we are in a real vicious circle: hospitals under pressure lead to staff exhaustion, who resign en masse or go on sick leave, which generates even more tensions!”
What are the solutions to this situation?
For the emergency physician, the various epidemics are only the symptoms of the situation and not the causes.The solution is to recreate local structures on a human scale, true intermediaries between primary care medicine (general practitioners, health centers, etc.) and ultra-specialized reference hospitals.”
For our expert, demographic change, with the aging of the population and pathologies – particularly chronic ones – weakening patients, make this step backwards on health savings more than necessary: it is urgent and essential.