After a temporary closure for the first night, the Vendée CHD announces today a new closure of the Fontenay Le Comte emergency room, for 3 days, starting Friday morning.
Since April 3, the date of entry into force of the RIST law, the remuneration of temporary doctors in France must be capped at €1,170 gross for a 24-hour day of work, regardless of specialty. In this context, the Fontenay-le-Comte hospital center suffered, in turn, from the lack of voluntary replacement doctors. For the first time, the emergency room will close twice, at this local hospital.
At the start of the week, the emergency department of Fontenay-le-Comte hospital was closed overnight from Tuesday April 18 to Wednesday April 19. People were then redirected to 116.117 or 15 in the event of a life-threatening emergency. The service had been reopened at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
2 days later, in a new press release, the Management of the Center Hospitalier de Vendée announces that the reception in the emergency room of this hospital in the south of Vendée will be “exceptionally suspended” for 3 days, from Friday, April 21, 8:30 a.m. to Monday, April 24, 8:30 a.m.
Thus, before moving, users are asked to call 15 for life-threatening emergencies or 116 117 for matters relating to general medicine. For the CHD, this “medical regulation must make it possible to provide patients with a response adapted to their needs via medical advice, deferred appointment or referral to the emergency department of a health establishment, with the intervention if necessary of an SMUR (Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service, by vehicle or helicopter).“
But the nearest hospitals are more than 35 minutes away by road, whether Luçon or La Roche-sur-Yon or even Niort or La Rochelle, which all depend on another region.
For the SUD union of the Fontenay Le Comte hospital center, the observation is clear. “Hospital workers are worried about the situation.” according to Sébastien Grelaud, deputy secretary of the organization. “We blame last-minute communication from the ARS and a lack of anticipation from our departmental management where all the powers are now concentrated.”
Moreover, the union fears that in the medium or long term, definitive closures of services within the South Vendée hospital will be announced.
The question then arises of the future of a population pool already strongly affected by medical desertification. In a study published by the Association of Rural Mayors of France, the differences in life expectancy between rural departments and urban departments can reach 2 years for men and one year for women.
