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Christophe Prudhomme (emergency physician)
Monday, May 15, François Braun, Minister of Health announced the recruitment of 3,000 additional medical regulation assistants to unclog the emergency services. But who are these assistants and what are their importance and their constraints? We put the question to Dr. Christophe Prudhomme, spokesperson for the Association of Emergency Physicians of France (AMUF).
They are the first voices that answer us, reassure us and direct us to a hospital if necessary, or send us a rescue team. Little known to the general public, medical regulation assistants are nevertheless considered to be an essential link in medical care. So much so that the Minister of Health François Braun is counting on 2 to 3000 additional recruitments throughout the territory to “unclog hospital emergency services before the end of the year (2024)” according to an announcement from May 15. But can we bet everything on these regulatory agents? What are their functions and constraints? Dr. Christophe Prudhomme, spokesperson for the Association of Emergency Physicians of France (AMUF) gives us his opinion… From a control centre.
#Le15Recruits | 📣 Medical regulation centers are hiring!
The Ministry is launching a campaign to promote the profession of medical regulation assistant at the request of @frcsbraun.
Objective: to highlight their essential role ✅#ChooseThePublicService
– Ministry of Health and Prevention (@Sante_Gouv) May 15, 2023
ARM, an essential link, but a permanent pressure
According to the job description of the Ministry of Health, the ARM exercises in the hospital, more precisely within the SAMU and the SAS which provide medical attention 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Its functions are essentially based on the reception, listening, stress management, prioritization of calls and finally activating the appropriate means of action. A rich job, which now benefits from a full year of training in a center or school.
“But like many other professions in the hospital, the ARM profession suffers in terms of attractiveness” reveals the emergency doctor. “The problem that arises is that it is work that requires great vigilance (assistants have between 45 seconds and one minute to determine the severity of the call)coupled with a significant psychological burden, heavy responsibilities, and a hardship linked to staggered hours, since the peak of activity comes when people are resting, either in the evening, at night, on weekends and holidays” recognizes Dr. Prudhomme.
“Added to this is the Minister’s choice to develop his healthcare access service (and the fact of calling 15 before going to the emergency room) without taking into account the fact that the call centers do not were not up to the dimensions of lines, personnel or premises to be able to withstand such a sudden increase in calls “ he continues.
On France Info, an assistant indeed testifies to the untenable situation experienced in her own call center “About ten regulators work during the day and five at night. They have to deal with around 1,500 cases daily, which represents between 4,500 and 6,000 calls per day”.
3,000 new assistants recruited to streamline the situation
It is to make this overload more fluid and to better “regulate” calls that François Braun is therefore launching a recruitment campaign, with the solidarity slogan “Respond to help.” A great idea that the emergency physician tempers:
“It is still necessary that these assistants remain in post. Many people quit after 6 months, a year, because they find the job too heavy for the remuneration offered. (between 1800 euros and 3200 euros gross depending on experience Ed). This is one of the professions essential to health, but as people leave, we also lose quality, you need a little bottle to be efficient”.
In the end, training and welcoming new regulation assistants is not a bad thing, but on the front, this decision cannot intervene alone to unclog emergencies.
“There’s no point in hiring telephonists if all the calls result in the decision to send the patient to the emergency room, since there are no doctors to send them to. This is once again inappropriate. What is needed is that this hiring of people concerns all categories, with more beds in hospitals to be able to hospitalize patients, and a reorganization of city medicine which must be given the means to continue their visits home.” he concludes.