It’s hard to change mentalities, but the time when you could go to the emergency room at any time is over. In Aubenas, it is now necessary since July 15 to go through the 15th to be admitted to the emergency room between 8:30 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. The situation was becoming untenable since there is only one emergency doctor and one general practitioner at night to deal with the influx of patients.
A third of emergency room consultations do not fall under emergency medicine. Franck Rieu, head of the emergency department at Aubenas hospital.
It should be added that we have become accustomed to going to the emergency room even when it is not really an emergency. A third of consultations can wait according to the head of the Aubenas emergency department. For another third, a medical opinion is welcome and there are indeed a third of real emergencies.
15 regulates night entries
The Aubenas emergency department therefore decided to ask the 15th to regulate consultation requests at night from 8:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. It is therefore impossible to go to the emergency room on your own at night. You either have to be brought there by the fire brigade or call 15, who makes a decision.
The idea is to be able to concentrate on the real emergencies and not be disturbed by a clogged ear or a pain in the arm that has lasted for four days.
A complicated first night
The night from Friday to Saturday was a bit complicated, the first night of setting up the new system. Patients showed up spontaneously who were asked to call 15. There was nervousness and incomprehension. But it is only at this price that the Aubenas emergency department can hold out with so few doctors.