Since the end of September, SOS Médecins no longer intervenes to examine people in police custody or to produce death certificates. For Alternative Police CFDT, this wastes a lot of time for the police. The prefecture and especially the ARS are invited to unblock the situation.
It is a mission of which the general public is not necessarily aware. Sos Doctors, does not just come to your home for a consultation. The association is also requisitioned by the police for specific acts.
But since last September and the start of the strike, the doctors of the association no longer carry out any day trips, whether for individuals or the police.
Their main claim is the increase in the price of daytime home consultation. Opposite, the police ask them to ensure at least the acts on requisition the time of the strike.
A person placed in police custody has the right to see a lawyer but also a doctor if he wishes. For minors it is mandatory. This involves having a doctor determine whether the person’s state of health is compatible with a police custody measure. ” This represents around thirty or forty interventions by a doctor every day in the Bordeaux Metropolis. », explains Bruno Vincendon, the regional secretary ofAlternative Police CFDT.
« I just wrote a letter to the prefect on behalf of my union he says. ” We have to sit around a table with SOS Médecin. We understand the strike. And their request to reevaluate the price of home visits is legitimate.
But we are already suffering and we have to find a solution. It would be necessary that at least the legal requisitions are ensured. That would be the minimum.”
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The union highlights a major waste of time for the police. ” As a result, the emergency police officers and those of the Security and Proximity Group are called upon to bring the people in custody to the hospital. Once they arrive at the emergency room, they are not necessarily a priority. It is at the goodwill of the doctor and of the work that there is in the emergency room. And we know the state of saturation of the emergencies.
And during this time the policeman is not available to take care of patrols, domestic violence, and everything that is his responsibility in normal times.
The professionals of SOS Médecins also intervene in the event of death. When a person dies at home, and there are no relatives to give the name of the treating doctor, then the judicial police officer calls in SOS Médecins to draw up a death certificate. They also decided not to perform these acts during the strike.
Frédéric Chemin is the president of the SOS Médecins branch in Bordeaux. He was not contacted by the Alternative Police CFDT union on the subject. But the climate does not seem tense between the two institutions.
“These missions are the responsibility of the hospital and more particularly of the forensic doctors “recalls Frédéric Chemin. ” But it’s more economical to pay SOS Médecin on a piecemeal basis than to pay someone at the hospital. “, ironically the one who has worked for more than 20 years in Bordeaux. For information, travel for police custody is billed 57.50 night and day by SOS Médecin.
« It always worked like this“, he said. “But there are other cities where the situation changed 5 or 6 years ago. This is the case in Nantes I believe. Forensic medicine has handed over staff for these certificates, for example. This is not the choice that was made in Bordeaux. After we are not against, the proof we carried out these acts. It’s a tiny part of our activity, about 2% ».
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“At the end there are only 5 or 6 euros left per visit”
Continue to support these legal requisitions during the Strike? No. “ It has to work, everyone has to be requisitioned, like the general practitioners, not just us ».
The president recalls that these missions continue to be carried out at night and on weekends since their demands relate to the pricing of acts during the day. ” It is estimated that the price for day visits is unsuitable. We do at best one per hour. These visits are increasingly complex and time-consuming. They are charged 35 euros. We deduct 50% of charges. Then there are the costs related to the standard, to gasoline.
At the end there are 5 or 6 euros left per visit. While at night, the visit is charged 71 euros, 55 euros on weekends.
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Since the beginning of the strike, SOS Médecin says that he has not seen any progress. “ The deed has not been valued for 15 years. In addition, we have a special role in urgent medical aid which means that hospital emergency rooms are not overcrowded. We made a proposal to the Regional Health Agency: to make doctors available but being paid not by the act but by the hour. This was refused by the ARS. If we had obtained this request, we would have stopped the strike and suddenly we would have resumed police custody and deaths ».
It is therefore today towards the ARS that the eyes of the police and the local branches of SOS Médecin, who have been on strike for almost 5 months, are turning.
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