Neptune Mental Health Unit Forced to Close Due to Doctor Shortage: Impact on Patients and Professionals

In order not to find itself under water, Neptune has closed. This care unit of the Public Mental Health Establishment of Caen (EPSM) is the victim of a lack of doctors this summer. Consequence: closure of the service from July 17 until the beginning of September.

“Neptune is the admissions service for the Caen Est sector, explains a caregiver. It is one of the largest providers of patients, but it is the center where there is a lack of doctors the most”. According to her, it would have taken twice as much to ensure the smooth running of the service.

About fifteen patients have been reclassified in another service “now overloaded, with single rooms which have been doubled”, regrets another member of staff. According to witnesses, however, the summer is going rather well. The vital forces have been concentrated on the open service and several of the patients are known and are taking their treatment, which facilitates their follow-up. But a caregiver recalls “that in psychiatry, you have to take the time with people. But we have less time. There is an impact on operation. It brings stress to some patients and it is less easy for them to get better. »

“Colleagues are passionate, but it’s insecure”

This upheaval also concerns professionals. Those assigned to Neptune had to change their habits, once moved to another service. One of them finds himself working in an extra-hospital unit “with new colleagues and new patients, whom we know less. We take it as a new experience, but it’s stressful. I feel like I’m a student again.” She confides her “concern for patients”. The team tried to catch some news from the latter, in their refuge service, where the reception of the teams in place was good.

According to the latest news, Neptune will reopen well at the start of the school year. A relief, even if this return to normal does not hide the persistent difficulties of the EPSM, which had already closed beds last April, again because of the lack of doctors. “The shortage continues, blows a caregiver. There will be departures. And when the medics get back into Neptune, it’ll put the other unit in trouble.” “Neptune’s closure is just another hiccup. Colleagues are passionate, but it’s insecure. There are doubts about the rest, ”slips another witness.

Work overload

Because psychiatry is not immune to the crisis of health structures in France, quite the contrary. Lack of attractiveness, means and comfort at work… A cocktail that tends to cloud the avenues for improvement. “It’s less attractive because there is an overload of work, analyzes a professional. It creates a vicious circle. There should be simultaneous arrivals of doctors. Otherwise, the difficult situation may discourage newcomers”.

New psychologists are announced in the fall. New hope in a sensitive climate, while several strikes have taken place in recent months, despite a declining mobilization, out of fatalism according to a caregiver. The management will also have another delicate matter to manage in the coming months: the EPSM will be crossed by… the Caen tramway, whose future route will cut the site in two in 2028. Another blow for the site and its diminished teams.

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