After the partial and temporary closure of the emergency services of several towns in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, the adult emergencies of the Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux, under pressure due to lack of staff, will no longer receive at night only patients with at least previously called on 15 to be directed remotely by a doctor, announced the CHU of Bordeaux, Tuesday, May 17.
This new operation, intended to regulate the influx of patients in the emergency room and make up for a chronic lack of caregivers – half of the workforce is missing according to the regional daily South West –, will be set up from Wednesday every night from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. and “regularly reassessed”said the Bordeaux University Hospital.
According to the director general of the Bordeaux University Hospital, Yann Bubien, quoted by South West Tuesday, the Pellegrin hospital, the first emergency site in the New Aquitaine region, is experiencing “tensions on human resources since the summer of 2021. Many resignations, renewed contracts, departures. »
“Unacceptable”
Several hospitals in the region – in Jonzac (Charente-Maritime), Sarlat (Dordogne), Orthez and Oloron-Sainte-Marie (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), Montmorillon (Vienne), Marmande (Lot-et-Garonne), Sainte-Foy- la-Grande as well as the Robert Picqué joint hospital in Bordeaux (Gironde) – have already adopted a similar system or limited the number of emergency opening days, detailed the regional health agency (ARS) in a press release.
According to the ARS, for patients who have not called 15, “a telephone connected to SAMU-Centre 15 is accessible in front of the emergency room access” and, “in the event of a proven emergency, the patient is taken care of directly by the emergency department”.
” We are number one in France, the biggest site in New Aquitaine and we are going to ask people to call before coming? This is unacceptable “, reacted Alain Essebar, secretary general of the CGT – Pellegrin on France Bleu Gironde.
“The worst is ahead of us”
The unions have been reporting, for several months, a staffing problem in several trades. “We have not heard the alerts of all the professionals: doctors, paramedics, nurses or caregivers. (…) We make people work at full capacity on calls of twelve hours, even twenty-four hours for certain doctors. We bring them to exhaustion or to departure ”lamented on France news Gilbert Mouden, nurse anesthetist and SUD-Santé Sociaux staff representative.
“The whole emergency system is derailed” and “The worst is unfortunately not behind us, but ahead of us…”completed the same union in a press release, considering that the emergency call system is “also in great suffering for lack of human resources” and “reinforced by more than forty medical students to maintain an acceptable response to 15”.
Pediatric emergencies and maternity at Pellegrin Hospital have not changed their operation, reports South West. The emergencies of Saint-André hospital and private clinics will remain open, also recalled, Monday, News Bordeaux, to which the regulating doctors will be responsible for referring patients.