“The establishment of a single emergency call number is necessary and beneficial”

Tribune. The health crisis that we have been going through for over a year confirms the many questions posed by our healthcare system, from its resources to its organization, in particular in terms of emergency management. The pressure faced by caregivers, but also relief workers, raises questions about how we operate.

This situation is not going to improve. Embolism which affects and will affect hospitals also has repercussions on the entire relief chain. In 2030, there will be 30% more octogenarians and fifteen million French people with chronic diseases. The problem goes far beyond the crisis linked to the Covid-19 epidemic; it is structural, tangible and everyday.

Redirect alerts

This congestion is particularly expressed on the front line, in emergency services and SAMU-centers 15, suffocated with each health crisis. It is necessary to quickly draw all the consequences of the situation which saw the 15th, designated by the government as the hotline for Covid cases, being unfortunately overwhelmed and becoming unreachable when it was invested with a new function.

Beyond the crisis, this emergency care system is often outdated and has become obsolete. The good treatment of situations of immediate distress, and in particular cardiac arrest, supposes that all of these calls are taken into account. thirty seconds, according to current scientific recommendations.

The persistence in maintaining a single point of entry for all medical situations without distinction does not allow this performance, we see it every day. The objective that a professional achieves within thirty seconds would only be achievable at the cost of a considerable increase in the human resources of the centers 15.

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The flaws in our emergency system result from the choice to direct all health alerts to hospital emergencies. While only 5% of calls to centers 15 concern real emergency situations, hospital emergencies have become dispensaries, city health professionals have been withdrawn from their role of first resort, and relief workers – at first. rank of which volunteer firefighters – are under operational pressure for non-urgent reasons.

It is on the strength of our knowledge of the territories and their actors that we call for a reform of public action aimed at clearly distinguishing the urgent from the non-urgent.

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