“How are we going to hold out this summer? And then in the longer term, in the short term and in the medium term?”, wonders Thursday May 26 on franceinfo Mathias Wargon, emergency doctor who directs the emergencies and the SMUR (mobile emergency and resuscitation service) of the Delafontaine hospital in Saint-Denis, faced with the shortage of caregivers at the hospital. His solution: “regulate the entrance to the emergency room”as has been the case since May 18 at the CHU Pellegrin in Bordeaux.
>> Bed closures, bonuses, recruitment of young graduates … faced with the shortage of caregivers, the D system of hospitals to spend the summer
In France, many emergency services must partially close, especially at night, for lack of nursing staff. In the emergency room of the Delafontaine hospital in Saint-Denis where Mathias Wargon works, “we operate with half of our paramedical staff”. The emergency doctor has been pleading for several years for regulation at the entrance to emergencies, as “It’s done in many countries”he assures us, which would make it possible to focus on the most critical patients. “Demagogy says: ‘We are not going to regulate, anyone can go there’. But why can anyone benefit from a system?he asks himself. You can’t get anywhere cheaply. It is not possible. We are breaking up the system out of demagogy.”
Situation at the hospital ➡️ “The problem arises as in all hospitals. Emergencies, we work with half of our staff”, says Mathias Wargon, head of emergencies at Delafontaine hospital in Saint-Denis. “We juggle , but it is very complicated.” pic.twitter.com/xvqSHquNol
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) May 26, 2022
According to Mathias Wargon, regulation must be introduced at the entrance to emergencies “from this summer”and for this, it will also be necessary to train nursing staff to sort patients. “And then we will have to explain to people that no, everything is not free, the hospital is not free, emergencies are not free, it never has been”says the emergency doctor, who appeals to the “citizenship” patients. the hospital, “it’s a public service”but “It’s not Amazon”he said.
The shortage of caregivers at the hospital is due, according to Mathias Wargon, to the “working conditions”. “We can’t recruit”says the emergency doctor, who believes that salaries must be increased and the “career opportunities”. In thirty years, “we went from too many doctors to not enough doctors, and we did not consider that people were going to change their way of life”he analyzes.
“The doctor who works 80 hours a day, who dies at the age of 65 from his heart attack and who does not know his family, is finished, assures Mathias Wargon. People, they want to work like the rest of the population”. A problem also exacerbated at the hospital, where the nursing staff also works at night and on weekends, sometimes without knowing their schedule in advance. “Nobody offers anything for emergencies, nobody has a real solution”laments the emergency doctor.
“We are told ‘we are going to hire people’. But at home, the positions are open, there are bonuses. We cannot find anyone.”
Mathias Wargonat franceinfo
“All this was not anticipated”he concludes. “We can’t recruit and we don’t retain” so the staff “the atmosphere is gloomy”assures Mathias Wargon. “There are services that will not be able to remain open 24 hours a day this summer”.
“Nobody offers anything for emergencies, nobody has a real solution. We are told ‘we are going to hire people’. But with us, the positions are open, there are bonuses. We cannot find anyone, for stories of working conditions”, says Mathias Wargon. pic.twitter.com/hBHmSnDHuv
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) May 26, 2022