Health: “We must review the entire hospital system”, assures Mathias Wargon

Gauthier Delomez 7:30 a.m., March 19, 2022, modified at 7:31 a.m., March 19, 2022

INTERVIEW

To turn the page on Covid-19, measures are needed to make the profession of hospital caregiver attractive again.

Guest of

Saturday, Mathias Wargon, the director of emergencies at the Delafontaine hospital in Saint-Denis, near Paris, put forward his proposals, two days after the announcement of Emmanuel Macron's program.

He explains at the microphone of Thierry Dagiral why the entire hospital system must be reviewed to respond to the "crisis of meaning" of health professionals.

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Why hospitals are "poorly organized"

Mathias Wargon first insists on this crisis of meaning "extremely palpable. There is a departure of personnel, in particular paramedics from hospitals, with a big recruitment problem, which has worsened after the Covid."

If it is a "global" problem, the author of the book

(Fayard editions) highlights the working conditions in France, the salary, or even the poor maintenance hospitals.

"And then, the hospitals are poorly organized," adds Mathias Wargon.

"They are not made to respond to demand, and to what they are asked to do. There is a kind of 'hospital-centrism' in France which means that everything is done there, and in a way completely organized", he explains on Europe 1.

Involve other health actors

In his book, the director of emergencies states that many tasks can be done by city doctors.

An element taken up by the candidate Emmanuel Macron, who wants better coordination between city doctors and hospital doctors.

"Coordination yes, but it's very complicated," retorts Matthias Wargon.

"We have to get organized, and there are not many city doctors left. That's why everyone ends up in the hospital", points out the emergency director.

For him, "we should go beyond and allow other professions to also be able to take care of patients in a different way, such as physiotherapists, nurses, with additional diplomas. This exists in other countries" , specifies the doctor, who underlines that "the whole health system is to be reviewed".

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Invest in nursing homes

Noting that people's lives have "changed", like that of doctors, Mathias Wargon argues that we should not "put pieces of tape on things that don't already work".

To avoid this, President Emmanuel Macron has put forward the recruitment of 50,000 nurses and caregivers in nursing homes.

A proposal that goes in the direction of the director of emergencies, in favor of the entry of medicine into these establishments for the elderly.

"Yes, in principle", he says, recalling that coordinating doctors were already present in these establishments, "but there are not enough of them, and they do not have control over the treatments and the patient care. Again, we will have to review that, "adds Mathias Wargon at the microphone of Thierry Dagiral.

Rethinking the role of the hospital

Finally, the emergency director of the Saint-Denis hospital center wants a great consultation on the hospital to rethink its role.

And the doctor asks himself: "Do we want to do programmed, unprogrammed? What is the place of dependency care? We have dependent patients who have nothing to do in the hospital, and young patients even more difficult to fit than old patients."

It would also be necessary, according to Mathias Wargon, "to review the financing, and not necessarily by pouring money everywhere (...). We must reorganize things in a much lighter, more agile way, and not do everything on the hospital which is an extremely heavy structure and intended to respond to complex problems."