Since Monday, July 11, the emergency department of the Nice University Hospital has been forced to “regulate the admission” of patients. In Nice, as in certain tourist areas, the emergency services receive two to three times more patients every summer than the rest of the year.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
“It’s extremely complicated in the whole southern zone“, warns Pierre Schwob Tellier, is co-president of the Inter-Urgences collective. Faced with a lack of staff, the emergency department of the Nice University Hospital had to filter patients on Monday July 11 because of too many people. An unprecedented situation in the middle of the summer tourist season.
The fear of an escalation of the crisis in the emergency services is about to become reality in this summer period. Between an influx of tourists, staff vacations, and a lack of doctors, the emergency services are cracking up. In Nice, when some patients continue to be admitted on site, the others are referred to neighboring hospitals and clinics. The Nice emergency room received “a peak of 310 patients” on Monday evening, due to “sustained” summer activity, with 70 visits more than the annual average, said the CHU. “We already have emergencies that require regulations like in Bordeaux, Toulouse or Nice. In the southern zone, we have hospitals on the verge of holding out like La Timone in Marseille“, emphasizes Pierre Schwob.
Dr. Marc Noizet, president of the Samu-Urgences de France union makes the same observation. Hospitals in towns on the shores of the Mediterranean, also in Vaucluse, are more short-staffed this year. “There are tensions this year in the workforce of emergency services around the Mediterranean in particular.“A finding that the president of the Samu-Urgences de France union”does not explain“.”Until now, these were areas rather attractive and which were rather preserved from these problems of tensions“, he continues.
The various proposals of the “flash” mission on emergencies, which the new Minister of Health François Braun had himself diligent before entering the government, come into force this week. The flash mission recommended in particular to “regulate admissions”, that is to say to refuse the least serious patients and direct them to other care structures. The most radical solution that should be adopted by many emergency services in the coming weeks.