Emergencies: limited access to Bourg-en-Bresse

Emergencies are overcrowded in Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain)to avoid this problem of high attendance, patients can no longer present themselves to the hospital center after 8 p.m. “I thought they were going to take care of me right away, I wasn’t going to go anywhere else again”wondered a patient. “We assess the degree of seriousness, the degree of urgency of the reason for consultation and according to this sorting, we direct”explains Karine, reception nurse.

In order to lighten the workload, this operation has been put in place. The hospital service is happy with this fluidification of attendance which limits overtime and allows staff to be able to take care of medicine as a priority. “What we would like is to take care of the heart of our profession which is emergency medicine and this protocol allows us to find some meaning also by redirecting patients”reports Sébastien Roux, head of emergencies at Bourg-en-Bresse hospital (Ain). The other problem of this department is the medical deserts and the low number of general practitioners. Thus, people in need of a rapid diagnosis go to the emergency room.