Despite numerous calls for help, the situation of emergency services and SMURs “continued to deteriorate” during the summer of 2023. They are now experiencing “unprecedented” tension, deplores the Samu-Urgences union of France in a report published on Wednesday.
“The system gives the illusion of having held up,” the union said in a press release. “But the conditions of reception and care are profoundly altered. Working conditions have become unbearable and inhumane for our exhausted professionals. Health security is sometimes no longer guaranteed, including for vital emergencies”. The union, which regrets “the absence of centralized collection” of data on the difficulties encountered by the services, carried out a survey itself among the mobile emergency and resuscitation services (SMUR) and emergencies on the conditions of observed in July and August.
Medical lines and emergencies closed
According to this report, covering “more than half” of the 680 emergency structures in France, 163 emergency services closed at least once during the two summer months, while 166 SMURs closed at least once. unit over the period. “The novelty is that last year, it was a few services here and there. This year, almost all the departments are concerned, ”said Marc Noizet, president of the union and head of emergencies and the Samu of Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin).
Similarly, 157 emergency services say they have closed at least one medical line, in connection with the strong tensions on the availability of emergency doctors, in particular since April 2023 and the entry into force of the Rist law on medical interim. “There are lots of services that hold an operation at arm’s length, with fewer doctors to welcome patients,” says Dr. Noizet. “It’s catastrophic in terms of waiting times, patient safety, team exhaustion and quality of care.”
Recognize the “gravity of the situation”
Concerning the SAMU-Centres 15, three-quarters of them say they needed reinforcements from medical regulation assistants (ARM), but a third could not find any. “There must be recognition of the seriousness of the situation, and there must be investments, in particular in hospital attractiveness”, claimed Marc Noizet. The union asks in particular to “streamline the downstream of emergencies”, by increasing the number of hospital beds, to increase the wages of the permanence of care carried out at night or on weekends, or to reinforce the services of regulation of access to emergencies.
During a press conference on Tuesday, the French Hospital Federation (FHF) for its part estimated that the situation of emergency services has deteriorated in 41% of establishments compared to 2022, and that access to hospital beds deteriorated in one year in 52% of establishments. The Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, presented other figures. “We have 680 emergency services in France, 5 were completely closed this summer, around forty had to close punctually”, he assured Tuesday morning on France 2.