Pediatric services are in crisis. The bronchiolitis epidemic, which mainly affects infants, has highlighted the failures of the child health system. In order to find solutions, the Minister of Health, François Braun, installed on Wednesday the orientation committee responsible for preparing the foundations of pediatrics announced for next spring. This committee is co-chaired by the former Secretary of State for Children and Families, Adrien Taquet and the President of the French Pediatric Society, Christèle Gras Le Guen.
“We are living in a situation that I would describe as historic (…), as the bronchiolitis epidemic has highlighted the flaws, the difficulties and the weakness of our child health system”, commented during a meeting. briefing Professor Gras Le Guen, head of pediatric emergencies at Nantes University Hospital. The latter is one of the first signatories of the platform of 10,000 caregivers calling last week on President Emmanuel Macron to break a “deafening silence” in the face of the pediatric crisis. This open letter calls for commitments, in particular on “respect for rest times and training times” for caregivers and “better compensation” for their night and weekend work. “We dare to hope that the exact contours and applications of these measures will be discussed more specifically during the pediatric conference in the spring of 2023, but it is essential that these strong commitments on structural and lasting measures be taken upstream and immediately” , added the text.
Roadmap
The co-chairs of the steering committee installed on Wednesday “will have to make proposals for the roadmap” that the Minister of Health will present during the assizes of pediatrics and child health, said those around him. They will be able to rely on the work of six groups, centered on the course of care for children, the care of the most fragile, child mental health, prevention, training of professionals and innovation.
This preparatory work will involve several ministries, health insurance and local authorities, hospital and liberal caregivers, but also maternal and child protection (PMI) and school medicine. “In addition to these six lines of work, we are going to organize the consultation of the parents themselves and in the same way, that of the children”, added Adrien Taquet, underlining a “strong will” to associate with the approach “the end beneficiaries” of the child health offer.