Toulouse: the automatic use of pediatric emergencies leads to congestion in the service
A mother went to the pediatric emergency room in Toulouse on Monday. She describes a difficult and tense climate. For its part, the CHU indicates that the place in the emergency room should not be systematic.
“It was apocalyptic, just hell.” Laure, a mother from Toulouse, a health professional, went to the Purpan pediatric emergency room in Toulouse on Monday evening with her eight-month-old son. The latter showed “signs of dehydration linked to a heat stroke” as Laure explains. “He had chapped lips, fever, red head, he was not drinking”. Worried, she therefore decides to franchise the SAS from the entrance to the emergency room for children. “We saw the reception nurse who barely looked at my son, made me feel guilty by telling me that I had nothing to do there because my child was doing very well”, says, still under the influence of emotion, this mom. She explains that she found this moralizing and culpable exchange at a time when she was racked with worry.
With her son, she waits all the same in the waiting room supervised by dozens of parents in the same situation as her. After several hours, as tempers flare and the tension rises a notch, a nurse returns to see Laure’s son to give him a tranquilizer. “There, she tells me that there are still at least four hours to wait like that, I had already been there for four hours, so I decided to leave,” she says. Finally, her son will go see his pediatrician the next morning who will diagnose him with an ear infection. Under recommended, he is doing better.
But Laure is not angry, what she experienced that evening, she finds it unacceptable. “However, I am from this sector, so I am conciliatory and understanding with the medical profession. I know that their conditions are difficult, that the pace is exhausting, but I would have liked more humanity and listening, especially when it comes to young children,” she says. For her part, Anne Viguier, deputy director of the children’s hospital at the Toulouse University Hospital concedes that this Monday evening, “there was very intense activity but we had the necessary staff”. But this manager wishes to recall that “the majority of patients who go to the emergency room are not inspired by pediatric emergencies”. “Going to the emergency room when the state of health does not justify it can put patients at risk,” she recalls. In order to avoid waiting hours for nothing, she reminds us of some advice. “Already, we take care of all infants under three months. If the parents are worried, they will necessarily see a doctor, ”notes the specialist.
Possible alternatives
Then, “a child who has had a fever for less than three hours, who has a runny nose, who has no difficulty breathing, vomiting but in isolation does not necessarily need to go to the emergency room” . Anne Viguier insists on the fact that we must not minimize or censor ourselves, but she indicates that there are other options before a place in the emergency room. “You shouldn’t censor yourself, if a parent is worried, they can call their doctor or pediatrician. He can also contact SOSMédecins or a medical care center or even 15, ”she notes. All these reflexes can make it possible to unclog the corridors of pediatric emergencies at a time when activity is intense and when the staff “is fully mobilized and on the front line”.