how are those in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais doing?
There is this summer increase in patients admitted to the emergency room of around 12% in July compared to last year at the same period, or around 180,000 people, alerts the association SAMU Emergencies of France in a survey released this Wednesday.
In the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, the situation is also tense.
Consequences for Lens emergencies
A classic day in the Lens emergency room is “from 200 to 250 entriesasks Jean Létoquart, nurse anesthetist at the SMUR. Or, normally it goes down in the summer, but that was before: “now it doesn’t go down», Assures the CGT delegate.
Inevitably, with the doctors and nurses who smoke well-deserved vacations in the summer, it is more difficult to maintain a constant service. “For the month of August, we have four days when there will no longer be free access to the emergency room, it will be an access regulated by the SAMU“, regrets Jean Léthoquart, who specifies that there will only be one doctor to ensure vital emergencies, against three usual.
The CGT delegate adds that “on a date, we have not found a 24-hour solution for the SMUR, for the moment there is no one“.
The coast, a difficult area
At the Regional Health Agency, we assure that we have anticipated, that “it’s tight but for now it’s ok“. Patrick Goldstein, medical adviser, in charge of the emergency department, knows the Lens problem and adds “Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, Montreuil: there on a very sustained activity, which reflects the fact that the French have taken their holidays less far from home, in particular the inhabitants of Hauts-de-France“.
In the Pas-de-Calais, in Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise, doctor Pierre Grave, regulator at the SAMU of Arras, puts forward a new device to relieve emergencies in the area:
We have strengthened the unscheduled care service at the Ternois polyclinic, where we, as general practitioners, welcome patients for unforeseen health problems, which must be treated in less than 48 hours.
Thanks to these free consultations without an appointment, it is 20 to 30 patients a day who avoid emergencies.