While 12 regions are on alert, caregivers have sent a collective letter to the President of the Republic. “There is a problem and we know it,” reacted Minister Agnès Firmin Le Bodo.
Hospitalizations of children in unsuitable places, distant transfers, postponements of scheduled surgical interventions, premature discharge from hospital… In an open letter to Emmanuel Macron published in The Parisian four thousand pediatric caregivers denounce the saturation of pediatric hospital services, the results of a “irresponsible political inaction“.
Deteriorations in working conditions lead to “delays in care» and to «endangerment of children“, they warn. In this context, the bronchiolitis epidemic saturates services already “bloodless“, while”an ever-increasing number of vacancies for paramedical and medical personnel“.
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The signatories of the forum highlight “the loss of meaning of caregivers, a consequence of bureaucratic governance and activity-based pricing, leading to overall exhaustion and a massive departure of hospital staff“. They demand from the President of the Republic “urgent and lasting measures to encourage the return of healthcare staff to hospitals with our children“. It’s necessary “act urgently“, they warn.
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12 regions in the bronchiolitis epidemic phase
This forum comes in a context of national alert on the multiplication of bronchiolitis, a respiratory disease that affects the little ones. Nearly 3,000 children under the age of 2 went through the emergency room during the week of October 10 to 16 alone. This is more than 50% compared to the previous week. Nearly a thousand of them were hospitalized.
On Friday, Public Health France announced in its weekly update that 12 regions are now placed in the epidemic phase: Occitanie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Bretagne, Centre-Val de Loire, Grand Est, Guyana, Normandy, Pays de la Loire, Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France and New Aquitaine.
In the Paris region, some overwhelmed services have been forced to transfer their young patients. Some are more than 200 kilometers from their parents. The director general of the Ile-de-France regional health agency (ARS), Amélie Verdier, acknowledged to AFP on Thursday “strong tensionsin pediatric departments in the Ile-de-France region. “To date, 14 pediatric intensive care transfers have been made to other regions, directed in particular to Amiens and Rouen.“, she said.
She called for theeveryone’s responsibility», in particular parents, for «protect against winter epidemics“, through barrier gestures and vaccination against Covid “including for children“. Overseas, only Guyana is currently affected but Mayotte, Guadeloupe and Martinique are in the pre-epidemic phase.
“We are therefore making every effort,” said the Minister
“There’s a problem and we know it“, reacted Saturday morning the Minister Delegate in charge of Territorial Organization and Health Professions, questioned on franceinfo. “We are counting on solidarity between hospitals, on solidarity with city medicine and are working on the longer opening of medical centers on duty in the evening.“, affirmed Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, specifying to bring the”supportfrom the government to caregivers.
“The Ségur de la santé has made it possible to revalue the health professions, it was a catch-up, we know that we still have to work on the hospital“, she conceded. “The hospital has not been well for many, many years“, she added.
Later in the day, Health Minister Francois Braun called “all French people on the alerton Twitter, also inviting them to “call 15, before going to the emergency room with their child, because very often, hospital care is not necessary“.
“We are therefore making every effort, with the ARS and hospitals, to support children and their parents.“, did he declare. “To the paediatricians and the teams mobilized (…) I want to say that we are going to do everything to support you, in the short term in the face of the emergency, but also in the longer term to build together the future of paediatrics in our country“.