Norman emergencies in crisis
For the fourth time in a month, the emergency department of Avranches hospital will close tonight. At Rouen University Hospital, emergency personnel have been on indefinite strike since December 27. In both establishments the problem is the same: a cruel shortage of staff.
The inhabitants of Avranches and the surrounding area will have to do without the emergency department again tonight at the hospital.
On the schedule displayed in the service, there are holes, too many holes. This evening, Marie Véronique Mourtada, emergency doctor at the Avranches Granville hospital center, is the only doctor to appear on this schedule: “In the Avranches emergency room, you need 2 doctors on call at night. And tonight, a doctor is missing. The service cannot operate with a single doctor, so we are closing the emergencies. We are not in number, and have been for months. ”
Avranches emergencies mean an average of 70 visits per day, mainly adults and children with trauma. To receive these patients 24 hours a day, 4 doctors, 5 nurses, 3 orderlies and an ambulance driver are needed during the day; 2 doctors, 3 nurses, 2 orderlies and 1 ambulance driver for the night.
And in this hospital it is the doctors who are lacking.
We should have 4 doctors during the day and 2 doctors at night, which is very rarely the case. On a very big shortage now.
Faced with the lack of doctors, the only solution is to close the emergency room
The only solution is therefore to provide daytime service and sometimes close emergencies between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m., like the next night and as it was the case for those of January 1, December 25 and December 3.
A situation less and less exceptional therefore and likely to recur.
Arnaud Joly, doctor in charge of emergencies at the Avranches Granville hospital center, explains that he has no miracle solution: “We call back our colleagues, we try to fill in the gaps but we cannot ensure uninterrupted permanence with the lack of doctors. Colleagues do much more than their hours, we appeal to the solidarity of other establishments, we resort to temporary work, and of course we try to recruit by all means, but currently, we have nothing concrete. “
According to this doctor, covid certainly worsens the situation, but the problem is more global and older. The number of doctors has been limited for too long, he says, and now “There is inertia despite the recent increase in the numerus clausus”. Another aggravating factor: “Emergency physician is a tiring specialty, which is difficult to practice until retirement. “
Patients in Avranches and its surroundings should call 15 in case of emergency. The calls are regulated and the patients advised, directed towards a general practitioner, or when it is necessary towards the emergencies of Granville, Coutances, Saint Hilaire du Harcouët.
“You should not go directly to an emergency department”
“You should not go directly to an emergency department” insists Arnaud Joly. This recommendation is valid in Avranches, but also elsewhere on the territory, and in particular in Rouen, where CHU emergencies are on indefinite strike since December 27 : “Despite the significant mobilization of the teams, the waiting time is currently very long for non-severe care. We envision patients not requiring severe emergency care to avoid going to the adult emergency room at Charles-Nicolle Hospital. ”
A strike movement for denounced the lack of personnel at Rouen University Hospital: According to Frédéric Louis, secretary of the CFDT section of the establishment, around fifty beds are closed throughout the CHU, due to recruitment difficulties, and around forty nursing positions are not of agreements.
“All this leads to disorganization in the emergency room. The colleagues in the emergency room are overwhelmed by patients who are stagnant due to a lack of beds.”, explained the trade unionist to AFP.
The Regional Health Agency must become aware of the difficulties of the public hospital. Apart from recruiting, there is not much to do.
In Rouen, the strike extends to other services
After nearly two weeks of emergency strike at Rouen University Hospital, two other services will follow suit. The waiting hospitalization unit (UHA) and the short-term hospitalization unit (UHCD), complementary to emergencies, were given a strike notice for the day of Wednesday, January 12.