In Lyon, the Samu du Rhône “faces” the thousands of calls received by the 15

“You are with a 65-year-old man who is staggering, is that it?”, asks for a medical regulation assistant from the Samu du Rhône, in Lyon. As soon as 15 is dialed, labor should begin quickly. “You dial the 15th, you come across the medical regulation assistants (ARM), who will immediately identify whether there is a life-threatening emergency or not.explains David Pinero, the deputy head of service. The assistants chain the calls. We arrive at average rates of 95% of calls within 30 seconds.”

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A challenge in busy periods like this month of July, with “around 1,400, 1,700 files per 24 hours and peaks at 2,500 on weekends. If we compare with the same period last year, we have an increase.”

The government repeats it: do not go to the emergency room, but dial 15, to avoid overcrowding the emergency services. ‘Cause they’re idling this summer “the emergencies of Givors, for example, close every night, I imagine for lack of staffcontinues David Pinero. When all the services tell you that they no longer have stretchers to receive patients, we have to find an orientation.”

Planning concerns are widespread. It is found in the regulation room of general practitioners. They handle calls that are not vitally urgent. “On paper, it is indeed a good thing to want to reduce the number of visits to the emergency room, but the measures were announced very late and we cannot, at the beginning of July, find regulating doctors to come and strengthen the workforce. “believes Pierre Boyeldieu, one of the regulating doctors.

“The period from July 15 to August 15 is complicated. We are sometimes only one in four doctors during the day for calls from all over the Rhône.”

Pierre Boyeldieu, medical regulator

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“The combination of deficit schedules, Covid peak and city doctors on vacation, will increase the waiting time”believes Pierre Boyeldieu.

To run the Samu, the public hospital has established summer contracts for liberal doctors as reinforcements and calls on students to supplement the workforce. But it will not last fears Raymond Le Moign, the director general of the Hospices Civils de Lyon. “The Samu 69 will cope. The difficulty will perhaps be more formidable at the start of the school year in terms of forecasting and management of schedules.”

A million communications pass through the Samu 69 each year. One of the most important in France which holds the road, not without fatigue.