” I am tired. I need this transport and I no longer know where to turn. Sandrine Bernardin, 59, living in Art-sur-Meurthe, underwent open-heart surgery a month ago for mitral valve replacement and triscupid valve leak reduction.
She must begin physical rehabilitation in a department of the CHRU de Brabois on June 12. From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. or from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., two to three times a week. The cardiologist will see if she needs 15 or 20 sessions. Problem, she can not find any ambulance or taxi company approved for her support in VSL (light medical vehicle). “I called about thirty. Without success. They are overbooked, the times of the sessions correspond to their peak hours. A few told me that I was out of their area. Still others, that they agreed to transport by ambulance but not by VSL”. “It’s true that we have one to two months of delay and 50 calls per day”, replies one of the taxis contacted. “Since the Covid, requests have exploded”. And there are traffic jams on certain time slots.
“My husband has already been a caregiver since 2008”
“Ambulance companies have dropped the VSL for economic reasons”, adds a medical transport company. “And then, the health insurance funds also seek to empower beneficiaries. For them, it is more profitable if it is the family who transports the patient when possible”. In fact, the solution was suggested to Sandrine. “We would be reimbursed 30 cents per kilometer when I am in the car. »
In concrete terms, each day there would be one return and one outward journey at the couple’s expense. “That’s not so much the problem. My husband has already been a caregiver since 2008. I suffer from a serious genetic pathology. I don’t want to force him to do that more, ”annoys Sandrine Bernardin.
Anxious to get her out of this impasse, the CHRU offered to hospitalize her during her rehabilitation, from Monday to Friday. But now, Sandrine has made long stays in hospital in recent years: “I can’t take it anymore and I don’t want it anymore! I really don’t know how to do it…unless I give up on healing.” Beyond her personal case, Sandrine wants to point out what seems to her to be a crisis situation: “I must not be the only one experiencing this. Especially since we now favor outpatient procedures”.
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