“Two-speed health” : this is what wants to denounce an infographic shared at the moment on Twitter, in particular by the emergency doctor Christophe Prudhomme. This publication suggests that there would be five times more caregivers mobilized at the moment on the Roland-Garros tennis tournament, than in the emergency room of the Ambroise-Paré hospital, located a few meters away.
No comment ! pic.twitter.com/xBHuWwPUZt
— Prudhomme Christophe (@PrudhommeChri10) May 25, 2022
Regarding the figures put forward, the order of magnitude is good, but it is imprecise. And, above all, misleading. The organizers of Roland-Garros confirm to franceinfo that 78 caregivers are mobilized this year during the three weeks of the tournament. In details, “13 doctors who are on call at the stadium, nine radiologists to do the ultrasounds, 12 nurses, 26 tournament physiotherapists, five ATP physiotherapists, five WTA physiotherapists, a person in charge of recovery, a podiatrist, three psychiatrists, two tournament psychologists and a WTA psychologist”. Thus, almost half of caregivers are actually physiotherapists and above all, no surgeon in this list contrary to what the publication claims.
For the Ambroise-Paré hospital, the AP-HP refuses to give figures, but an emergency nurse confirms to franceinfo that the service operates on average with around twenty people per day: three doctors, two interns, six to seven nurses, and as many caregivers.
The organizers of Roland-Garros believe that we “cannot compare a device put in place for an event that welcomes tens of thousands of spectators a day with an emergency service in a public hospital”, and provide additional details. “Of course we don’t mobilize all this staff at the same time”, explains in particular the tournament. In reality, all these caregivers take turns during the three weeks that the tournament lasts. In addition, most of the caregivers mobilized at Roland-Garros are more dedicated to the players than to the public. “Doctors at Roland-Garros are also hospital emergency doctors, they do both”also specifies the organizer.
This publication has actually been shared for ten years and reappears each time at the time of the Roland-Garros tournament, as evidenced by the various articles written by our colleagues from AFP, Le Monde, Liberation or even 20 Minutes. In 2019, for example, the message came out at the same time as the hospital emergency crisis took place with dozens of services on strike. Today it is shared again as hospitals are once again sounding the alarm with 120 emergency services in great difficulty, in particular due to lack of staff.