Stéphane Place 7:20 a.m., May 18, 2022

Two years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, public hospitals still bear the scars of its strained overloaded services.

At the CHU Pellegrin in Bordeaux, in Gironde, access to emergencies is now limited at night due to a shortage of doctors.

At the CHU Pellegrin in Bordeaux, you must now dial 15 to detail your emergency and obtain, or not, an appointment.

The consequence of a shortage of doctors within the establishment at the end of the coronavirus pandemic, which saw hospitals being saturated.

Since then, 40% of doctors have been off work.

The head of the emergency department details the new device at the microphone of Europe 1.

"Before going to the emergency room, the city doctor or the patients must dial 15 to have contact with a regulating doctor who will confirm the need for them to come to the emergency room or who will possibly offer them another option", explains the Dr Philippe Revel.

"For night shifts, in the 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. slot, it is the lack of doctors that is the cause of this."

He explains that this decision is exclusively linked to the "lack of doctors, the lack of paramedical staff, nurses, caregivers".

"One of the post-Covid effects. Many of our colleagues told us 'It's too hard, we're stopping'." 

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The issue of service quality

Fabrice Dumas is worried.

His observation is darker: for the FO union representative at the Bordeaux University Hospital, it is above all a "closure of emergencies".

"That's what worries us the most," he said.

"There will be an intercom for people who will present themselves physically. But we wonder where these patients will end up and if they are really treated and cared for on time."

On the Bordeaux side, the reactions are nuanced.

"It does not shock me, provided that it is hyper reactive", confides a resident at the microphone of Europe 1. And the news questions: today, no one can say how long this device will last.