ReportageFor the past year, nurses and caregivers from the Château-du-Loir hospital have been working in addition to the SMUR based in Le Mans, which is facing a shortage of emergency doctors. A unique experiment.
The night on call was long for the emergency paramedical team (EPMU) based at the hospital in Château-du-Loir, in the south of Sarthe. In their small premises, the lines drawn in front of the large map delimiting their territory on the wall, Marc-Antoine Letellier, 34-year-old nurse, and Denis Cosnard, 52-year-old caregiver, recall their ” exits “ the most significant of the last few months: a lumberjack victim of a branch falling on his head, a child who lost an eye following a blow from a horse’s hoof in the face, an old lady trapped under an overturned tractor… So many accidents that punctuate the daily life of emergencies in rural areas. “There were some great stories too”smiles the nurse, young father of three children. “And a few hearts saved. » Like this woman who suffered a cardiac arrest, left sitting in the fire truck after the intervention of the pair.
An unprecedented experiment in France, this emergency team, made up exclusively of nurses and caregivers, was created in May 2021 in the Sarthois medical desert. A way of responding to the shortage of emergency doctors which is hitting the territory, lacking around forty full-time equivalents, almost half of the workforce. The specialty of these paramedics? Arrive early on site. On average, twenty-two minutes before SMUR 72, these emergency and resuscitation teams who land with all howling sirens from Le Mans, the prefecture located about fifty kilometers away.
At the beginning, the population, accustomed to having to wait at least forty-five minutes to benefit from medical assistance, was surprised to see the arrival so quickly of health professionals capable of providing them with first aid, relieving their pain and carrying out a first health check. A year later, the “SMUR infirmier” flocked Duster found its place alongside the white SMUR trucks and the red fire brigade trucks.
At 8 o’clock, the relief arrives. “No Inter” to report for tonight. Nurse Christèle Renard, 52, and her caregiver, Eric Lopez, 59, will inspect their vehicle and its jam-packed trunk. Tools for measuring hemoglobin in the blood, blood sugar, carbon monoxide in the event of poisoning, oxygen, a mucus aspirator… But also a “scope”a monitor monitoring the vital constants (heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, etc.) that the SMUR regulating doctor can consult remotely to guide his colleagues on site.
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