REPORTING. To ensure security at the Tenon hospital in Paris, an anti-aggression alarm button used “at least once a night”

To enter the Tenon hospital, you have to show your credentials. Checks of bags by security guards at the entrance, then video surveillance of movements using 180 cameras, the images of which are scrutinized from the security PC. “ There, for example, I have the emergency room. I click on it and I directly see the staff who receive the patientdescribes Guillaume Dolphin, security officer. We do not have access to the treatment rooms, he specifies. It is forbidden to directly film a patient on a stretcher. We only film the corridors and the waiting room.

Waiting rooms are considered particularly at risk, confirms Cédric Vilquin, director of security for the hospital group. “These are places that are conducive to significant tension because of the wait that can sometimes be quite long in the emergency room.”

In the treatment rooms, an alarm button

In emergencies, precisely, the waiting room is separated from the care area by a door that opens only with a badge. And yet, it is sometimes in this area of ​​care that patients slip, get angry and become violent. There is then a big red button placed in each box. “We use it, either when we know that we are going to have to restrain a patient who is aggressive and that we need all the possible arms of the service, or in the event of aggression in the cubicle”, explains Dr. Hélène Goulet, head of the emergency department. It’s very simple, you press the button and a message comes out of the speakers, indicating where the problem occurs.

“At the beginning, there are two of us, but afterwards, when we trigger the alarm, there can be 15-20. The whole service arrives!”

Anas Sabir, nurse

at franceinfo

All the service indeed interrupts and rushes, just like the security guards posted at the entrance of the emergencies. “This button was a request from the teamsays Anas Sabir. We had several cases of fairly significant violence several years ago and this also alerts patients who may be agitated. When we see a lot of caregivers arriving we say to ourselves ‘well, we will cooperate rather than arriving at a little more complex situations’.” The system also reassures Céline Sorrente, health manager at night, where, she specifies, there are sometimes only women among the caregivers. “There are a lot fewer staff and we use it at least once a night”she says.

The emergency department has received 50% more patients with psychiatric disorders in recent years. Caregivers believe that this alarm button has become essential in their daily lives.

Last week, a nurse was stabbed to death by an unbalanced person at the CHU de Reims. The funeral of Carène Mézino takes place on Thursday 1^er June. Monday June 5, two caregivers, Jean-Christophe Masseron and Nathalie Nion, will submit a report to the Minister of Health with 450 proposals to improve safety.