Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Normally, an emergency service operates continuously, but in some municipalities in France, this is no longer the case. The inhabitants of the surroundings of Bergerac in the Dordogne, must do without the reception of their emergency service between 6 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. the next day, from today and until April 17, 2023.
Langon, Montmorillon, Aubenas, Bergerac… These towns, geographically distant, nevertheless have one thing in common: in recent weeks they have experienced a partial closure of their emergency services. In Sarlat-la-Canéda, in the Dordogne, it is the maternity ward which is closed, forcing women to give birth in another establishment that they do not know, sometimes several tens of kilometers from their home.
Emergencies accessible only via 15
How to explain these closures? The reasons given are the lack of staff available to work. Thus, to access the emergency room of the Samuel Pozzi hospital in Bergerac, you will first have to call 15.
“The problem is that you never know exactly what a patient has until you have examined him” denounces Dr. Eric Reboli, president and spokesperson of the National Union of Replacement Hospital Physicians (SNMHR). “The regulation is overwhelmed on the phone, it cannot do the sorting correctly. Result: it is a risk taken with each call and a loss of chance for the patients”.
Closure of emergencies: the Rist law in question?
For Dr Gérald Kierzek, the Rist law has accelerated things. “These closures are the consequence of the Rist law, which limits the remuneration of substitute doctors. These doctors ensured continuity of care. The risk now is that these temporary closures become permanent..
An observation also denounced by Dr. Reboli, who is indignant: “The doctors who are on the ground, who are on call and are exhausted, all say the same thing, but the administrators who govern us think otherwise. From now on, hospital doctors are in burn-out and are fleeing the hospital. And we, as replacements, for a few cases at 3,000 or 6,000 euros per day, they want to force us to fall into line, to come back to work in the hospital, by capping salaries! The ARS has even gone so far as to write to certain private clinics to ask them to cap their fees as well. It’s scandalous !“.
Review the working conditions of caregivers
For the two emergency physicians, the solutions to be provided are the same. Dr. Gérald Kierzek believes that the main priority is to make the profession of hospital caregiver attractive again by “remotivating the teams” without “abandoning the territories”.
For his part, Dr. Reboli denounces the unspoken health authorities: “For the Ministry of Health, there are no closures of establishments, they evoke “planning arrangements” which makes no sense“. He also considers it urgent to review the conditions of exercise of hospital staff so as not to see these situations repeat themselves and the closures go from temporary to permanent. For him, “it is essential to review the working and salary conditions of hospital staff as a whole, otherwise they will all end up leaving the public service“.