“So tell me, what are you coming for?” The doctor’s consultations are linked, Sunday, May 8 in Strasbourg. Here, we are indeed in the hospital, but in the medical care center of SOS doctors, right next to the emergency department. And the patients parade: a swollen ankle for Margaux, migraines for Emmanuel… “I’ve had migraines for three days so I had to consult because it’s not going well anymorehe testifies. It’s Sunday, so no attending physician. It couldn’t wait. I’m in a lot of pain and you never know.”
Since its opening on Friday May 6, it has already welcomed nearly 50 patients. Claire, who is grimacing because of pain in her kidneys, hesitated: “I said to myself that I wanted to go to the emergency room, it’s the first thing you usually think of when things are really bad, it’s a Sunday and everything is closed.”
Objective of this medical center: relieve congestion in hospital emergencies on weekends and public holidays. “We realized that there are still some of the patients who go to the emergency room who could be taken care of by city medicineexplains Doctor Dan Sellam, President of SOS Médecins Strasbourg. It doesn’t require the infrastructure of the emergency department.”
“Typically, it’s the patient who has a toothache, the one whose child has a fever of 39.5°C, who shivers, who has a little bluish lips and who coughs a lot. A parent can be worried and say to yourself, ‘I’m putting my child in the car, I’m taking him to the emergency room.'”
Dr Dan Sellam, President of SOS Médecins Strasbourgat franceinfo
Especially since the Strasbourg emergency room, often overwhelmed, receives more patients on weekends than on weekdays. Mary knows something about it. “I’ve been to the ER before, I know what it’s like when you wait 1 to 4 in a chair waiting to come through.” So this weekend, the emergency department was able to send some patients for the first time to the new medical center on duty, a few steps away. “We came herecontinues this lady, I think that’s a good thing. It’s very good because it’s not a life-threatening emergency.”
An ultra-fast consultation reimbursed by Social Security and mutual insurance with a prescription. The doctors of this medical house have access to radios, and in a few weeks, they will be able to take blood samples, scanners and MRIs.
A medical care center of SOS doctors at the Strasbourg hospital – Report by Solenne Le Hen
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