Yasmina Kattou, edited by Juline Garnier
Night closing, load shedding on other hospitals, filtered access for some Samu… For lack of caregivers, at least 120 emergency services in France have been forced to limit their activity or are preparing for it, according to a list which has been drawn up by the association Samu Emergencies of France. Its vice-president, Professor Louis Soulat, is sounding the alarm on Europe 1.
There is an emergency in the emergency room. According to the list drawn up by Samu Urgences France, the emergency services of 60 departments, which cover the twelve regions of metropolitan France and Mayotte, will be forced to limit their activity. At least one service must give in to insurmountable difficulties: the lack of doctors, nurses, nursing assistants. The situation is particularly worrying because it occurs prematurely.
“The correct term is: catastrophic”
“What worries us a lot is that it starts very early in the season. From May, the emergency structures are closed and this impacts both large and medium structures, which was not the case usually. I think the term is appropriate: catastrophic. Except that the disaster lasts, “warns Professor Louis Soulat, spokesperson and vice-president of the Samu Urgences France association.
According to Louis Soulat, nearly a third of emergency services are in difficulty when they emerge from Covid-19. This leads to an outright closure of services, either partial, with incomplete guard lines and therefore over-activity for the practitioners who remain. “The Ascension weekend will certainly be very hard in many places, so we want to filter this access to emergencies, it is the national message that we want to send,” he adds.