Pediatric services are in a crisis. The Inter-Hospital Collective speaks of a “catastrophic situation”, closed beds, insufficient staff … He denounces this Thursday the “sorting” and “loss of luck” in pediatric services. Doctors are at their wit’s end, forced to refuse patients for lack of places.
The cry of alarm comes as an epidemic of bronchiolitis is ravaging France. In a city, all regions are in the epidemic phase. During the week of October 18, 3,342 children under the age of 2 were seen in the emergency room for bronchiolitis. 9 out of 10 patients were less than 1 year old. This Thursday, October 28, the Inter-Hospitals Collective takes the floor and sounds the alarm bells. They held an emergency press conference about saturation of pediatric services in France. Lack of staff, wave of sick … Several elements are at the origin of this extremely serious congestion. “Children in emergency situations can no longer be taken care of by the competent services”, Denounced this organization of caregivers.
This is unheard of. Oanez Ackermann from the pediatric hepatology department of the CHU de Bicêtre declared “The difficulties that we are currently encountering are completely new “. 10 out of 24 beds are now closed. “In this month of October, we could not accommodate five children in a vital emergency” and we had to cancel “25 hospitalizations scheduled for several months” explains a pediatrician during this conference rebroadcast on YouTube.
“It’s sorting”
This press conference comes the day after a interview published in Liberation, in which the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, outlined the reasons for the closure of more than 5,700 full hospital beds in 2020 (“for lack of caregivers, especially for lack of being able to recruit”). “It’s sorting”, affirmed Véronique Hentgen, pediatrician at the hospital of Versailles, evoking the postponement of a surgical intervention for the lymph node infection of a child, then of another small patient suffering from joint pain and the impossibility of him install an insulin pump, “because there is no change. More hospital spacenot”. “We are very, very afraid that there will be children who die, for lack of care, because we no longer have room to take them.“, worries Oanez Ackermann. For Christophe Marguet, head of department of the University Hospital of Rouen, it is a situation all the more” serious “as public hospitals are the only option for pediatric medicine. Isabelle Desguerre, head of neuropediatrics department at the CHU-Necker Enfants-Malades, specifies that “Ultimately, we see a loss of luck for the child in need of care, for parents facing chronic disease, and caregiver burnout “
“We are therefore today at the crossroads of two paths: either the politician decides to abandon the public hospital, or he finally takes the problem head on and initiates a fundamental reform (funding, recruitment, governance) which will guarantee access to quality care for all “, said Véronique Hentgen. Especially since caregivers are exhausted. They work in “unethical conditions, giving rise to a mental load, a terrible responsibility, which do not arouse vocations and help to keep young practitioners away from the hospital“says Lisa Ouss, child psychiatrist. They say arrive with a lump in the stomach because they do not know if there are enough of them.
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The minister denies
This alert was sent to the Senate, by Senator Sylviane Noël (Les Républicains) to the Minister for Autonomy, Brigitte Bourguignon. The minister retorts “But there is no sorting, especially in emergencies … it is out of the question not to take a child in a vital emergency”.