“We have no solutions” for this summer, “plans are empty”, alerted this Tuesday Louis Soulat, head of the Samu-Smur Emergencies department in Rennes and vice-president of the Samu Emergencies de France while public hospitals in France are on the verge of explosion as the summer holidays approach due to a lack of of nursing staff. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, is expected Tuesday, May 31 in Cherbourg (Manche) at the Pasteur hospital. “It’s a strong signal. It would seem that at the highest peak of the state, we heard the messages of doctors, caregivers”he reacted.
franceinfo: Is this visit by the President of the Republic important to you?
Louis Soulat: It’s a strong signal. It would seem that at the highest peak of the State, we have heard the messages of doctors, caregivers who, for weeks, have been warning about the catastrophic situation which is taking shape throughout the national territory. This trip by the President of the Republic, accompanied by the Minister of Health and also the President of Samu Emergencies in France, is a very strong signal for us.
The situation of the Cherbourg hospital center, is it observed throughout the territory?
Yes, practically. The problem with emergency services is that they are overcrowded. This is called upstream flows. Patients who come spontaneously because they cannot access a general practitioner. It is certainly even stronger in the Channel due to medical desertification. And then also the second flow, that of the downstream, with the closures of beds in the services which will also be very substantial this summer, which directly impact the emergency services with patients on stretchers that we do not arrive not to orient completely. This is the reality with services which are in enormous difficulty since it has led to closures of services at night, even during the day, and other services which are suffering because they are suffering from a postponement of activity of emergency structures.
Do you recommend calling 15 before going to the emergency room?
Absolutely. This is the principle of the healthcare access service or the medical regulation that is done today with both general practitioners and emergency doctors. It must make it possible to guide the patient in a good course of care while having assessed the degree of seriousness and, from this request for care, a response is adapted by bringing to the emergency room only acute situations and by triggering our means mobile intervention, the Smur, when there is a vital emergency that has been identified by the medical regulator of the Samu.
Are you apprehensive about the coming summer?
It’s extremely difficult because even if the intensity of the problem has been taken into account, we have no solutions for very tense periods, in particular the most sensitive periods from July 15 to August 15 with schedules that are empty. We see it very badly. This is why we really expect a lot of announcements for the upgrading of this on-call work, to consolidate our place as emergency doctors, for the management of vital emergencies. What worries us the most is that emergency doctors see us in a bit of distress and wonder about the choice of emergency medicine. The measures that will be taken must make us attractive and refocus our core business.