At the Toulouse Samu, activity explodes: “The health system is suffering, we are the last light on”
Emergency services closed, attending physicians on leave and not replaced: this summer, Samu 31 is on the front line to ensure continuity of care. Its activity has increased by 20% each year since 2020.
At 11 a.m. this Thursday, August 4, 2022, the small bell of incoming calls from 15 held almost continuously in the reception and regulation room of Samu 31; the opening of medical files is linked, 23 ambulances are already in intervention on the territory of Haute-Garonne. The big screen is largely crossed out in red, witness to the lack of hospital beds in many establishments. The four doctors present at that time are unanimous: since the beginning of the morning, they have mostly on the phone with patients without doctors, without solutions. “And these calls take up our time, much more than if we sent an ambulance on site”, testifies Dr Anne-Laure Sancerni. This morning, for example, she handled the call of a patient whose symptoms evoke Covid but who had not taken a screening test, that of a mother worried about her child’s stomach aches, or even another patient positive for Covid but victim of a drop in blood pressure at home. Often, medical advice is sufficient.
The urgency felt is not always a vital emergency
“Today, patients or their loved ones want an immediate response. Sometimes they didn’t even try to find a doctor before calling us. Of course there is an urgency felt on their side but our role is still to reserve the immediate response to vital emergencies”. The emergency doctor has seen his job change over the past ten years and, even more, since the Covid-19 epidemic. “We feel that people are more anxious, having more difficulty separating things, fearing gravity more easily. The call to 15 has become more democratic”, summarizes Dr Anne-Laure Sancerni. She warns: “We have always adapted to situations (Covid, lack of liberal doctors, closure of beds in hospitals) but, there will be a time when we will not be able to compensate for everything”.
Because the activity of Samu 31 has exploded in recent years. “Calls have increased by 20% each year since 2020. We have gone from 150,000 files processed per year in 2010 to 327,000 today, I did not expect to see these figures one day”, confides Professor Vincent Bounes, patron Samu 31. One eye on his computer, the doctor explains that only a quarter of the calls will lead to hospitalization and that almost half of the medical calls end with advice.
327,000 medical files opened in one year
Between August 2021 and July 2022, Samu 31 handled 327,000 cases for around 700,000 calls (several calls possible per case and some calls not providing for medical intervention). This is 20% more than the previous year. This activity generated the dispatch of 72,000 ambulances, 51,000 fire engines, 15,000 Smur (emergency medical and resuscitation service) and the intervention of 30,000 on-call doctors.
Hope for a third SMUR antenna
This summer, the Samu 31 put into action a second mobile intervention team of general practitioners to keep patients at home as much as possible and avoid going to hospital. “If the Samu no longer did this regulatory work, the flow of emergencies would be multiplied by four, it would be the end of our emergency services. For the first time this summer, emergency services are fermenting for several days due to a lack of doctors. Hundreds of beds are closed… Even if the activity is quieter in the summer, we have no places to meet the needs. The health system is going very badly, the Samu is the last light on. And we cannot solve in two days a problem which has been structured for twenty years”, underlines again Professor Vincent Bounes who is working with the Regional Health Agency (ARS Occitanie) on the creation of an additional branch of Smur (service emergency medical and resuscitation), probably in the center of the Haute-Garonne department, to complete the teams set up in Toulouse (Purpan) and Saint-Gaudens. A second nurse to take care of calls related to psychiatry is also expected for the start of the school year.
Samu 31, created in 1968 by Pr Louis Lareng, today relies on a staff of 300 people (doctors, nurses, paramedics, medical regulation assistants, administrative services).
Who to contact for treatment in Haute-Garonne?
In case of need for unforeseen care but not of a vital emergency, here are some reflexes to adopt.
Contact your general practitioner first. In particular, he can leave instructions on his answering machine. In the event of unavailability or outside the opening hours of medical practices, other medical devices can be used.
In Haute-Garonne, this summer, 9 sites of the medical care center type or equivalent are operating. Attention, it is necessary to call before moving to obtain an appointment.
A Toulouse : SOS doctors (two sites: 24 route d’Espagne and 76 allées Jean-Jaurès). Tel: 05 61 33 00 00; Medical center of La Grave (Cité de la santé, place Lange). Tel: 05 61 59 22 12. La Faourette Medical Center, 142 avenue Henri Desbals, Tel. 05 34 46 54 76.
Several on-call medical homes also operate at Colomiers(clinic of the Pyrenees), Frouzins(87 Mediterranean Boulevard), Lespinasse , Peyssie(retirement home) and Saint-Gaudens. It is imperative to call 39 66 before moving, a regulating doctor will guide you or give you medical advice.
In case of doubt or vital emergency, composer on the 15th.