This recommendation follows a particularly tense situation in the emergency room, where the lack of staff and the summer holidays of caregivers aggravate an already tense situation.
Lack of staff, salary caps for temporary doctors, summer holidays… Faced with the risk of overcrowding in the emergency room, the Ministry of Health recommended, Thursday, June 28, to systematically dial 15 before going to the hospital. .
In some cases, this prior call will even be necessary to be able to access the emergency room, added the ministry, which did not, however, specify the number of establishments concerned by this new measure: “It will be done territory by territory”notably “in view of the workforce present” and “choice of local actors”.
>> Hospital crisis: what results for the care access services, responsible for sorting patients before they arrive at the emergency room?
In general, the 15 “is the right reflex” when a solution has not been found for a health problem which requires medical advice quickly, specified the office of the Minister of Health, François Braun, addressing in particular future holidaymakers.
A widespread practice at the end of 2023
With the progressive implementation of healthcare access services (SAS), responsible for sorting patients before they arrive at the emergency room, the 15 is increasingly able to “provide an answer for care” needed within 48 hours, he explained. These SAS are intended to “suggest a meeting” with a doctor, sometimes even “send a prescription directly from the healthcare access service platform” or “put you in touch with a teleconsultation, in an organized setting”, added the firm. Tested since 2019, these SAS now cover half of the French population, underlined the cabinet. The objective of the Ministry of Health is to reach 100% of the territory covered by the end of the year.
However, these dispatching services require personnel to respond to patient calls. Favorable to the SAS, the president of the Samu-Urgences de France union, Marc Noizet, acknowledged to franceinfo that “to adapt the remaining 70 Samu, it will take time, resources and recruitment”. However, the training of a medical regulation assistant, the person responsible for directing patients calling 15, takes at least a year.
François Braun only announced the launch of a major recruitment campaign in mid-May. This last “should have been launched last September, after the summer which was particularly difficult, in order to avoid repeating the same situation this summer”reacted Caroline Brémaud, head of emergencies in Laval (Mayenne), access to which will be closed at night from Monday July 3.