For three days last week, the sick and injured were stumped by this message at the entrance to the emergency room of the Montluçon public hospital: “Due to a lack of doctors, the service will have to devote itself solely To take care of real medical emergencies, you must systematically dial 15 which will direct you to the most suitable structure. »
A very low workforce
Dreaded for several months, this situation is due to the lack of emergency doctors in the Bourbon city. The workforce has fallen to three and a half full-time doctors, when twenty are needed, to which must be added four or five regular temporary workers and two attached practitioners – who are not registered and cannot work independently. “Last Tuesday, out of a 12-hour day, there was only one doctor (a temporary worker, Editor’s note) provided for in the schedule”, takes as an example the president of the establishment’s medical commission, Marie-Laure Dubouchet.
Help from other services
The number of patients going to the emergency room was divided by three – or twenty-five patients – on the first day of partial closure, Tuesday May 31, then by two the following two days. “Internally, we asked the doctors on the floors, from the other departments, to come down to help. For three days, we asked them a lot to have more or less viable teams. On Thursday, for example, there was supposed to be a 24-hour temporary worker, who didn’t come, ”explains Marie-Laure Dubouchet.
premium At the Montluçon hospital (Allier), “we are not going to close the emergency room but we will be forced to reduce our activity”
What are real medical emergencies?
“These are obviously life-threatening emergencies, cardiac pathologies or neurological pathologies such as strokes (cerebrovascular accident, Editor’s note). There are also medical emergencies, which can range from occlusive syndrome to femoral neck fracture. We add to this the people who are already followed in the hospital, and who can have an acute episode ”, deciphers the president of the medical commission of establishment.
We wanted to avoid traumatology which can be treated elsewhere, in particular at the Saint-François private hospital (Désertines), which has unscheduled consultations, even if it creates an overload of work for them.
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Other patients were redirected to hospitals in the region or to general practitioners.
This situation will last all summer
“In July and August, it is expected that there will be a third of the days when we will be in great difficulty, such as the three days [de la semaine passée], or even worse, predicts Marie-Laure Dubouchet. In May, we received help from the GHT (territorial hospital group), with practitioners who came from Clermont-Ferrand, Vichy and Moulins. But in June, July, August, and even September, all the establishments will have practitioners who will go on vacation, the help will be less. »
There are no plans to recruit doctors for the Montluçon emergency room before November, with the possible arrival of permanent doctors on a time-share basis with other establishments.
At the national level, there are one hundred and nineteen emergency services which are in great difficulty, according to a list of the Samu-Urgences de France union. “In a developed country like France, it’s lamentable”, breathes Magali Souche, CGT secretary of the Montluçon hospital.
Disabled lines of Smur
Another consequence of the lack of doctors: Montluçon has found itself on certain days, in recent weeks, without either of the two lines of Smur (mobile emergency and resuscitation structure). To provide the beginning of a solution, the Allier will benefit from a helismur in July and August, and the Smur de Moulins positioned itself in Montmarault last week to reach Montluçon more quickly.
What consequences for the population?
Last February and March, the white coats of the Montluçon emergency room observed minutes of silence on several occasions to warn of a possible closure of the emergency room. “This situation worries the population. In my entourage, people tell me that they are going to sell their house and leave because we can no longer receive treatment in Montluçon,” remarks Catherine Dutheil, Force Ouvrière secretary at the hospital, whose union is also fighting for the paediatrics, psychiatry and radiology, other overdue services at Montluçon hospital.
Guillaume Bellavoine
premium The lack of doctors raises fears of the closure of the emergency department of Montluçon hospital (Allier)
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