Emergency services and 15 in great difficulty, according to Samu-Urgences France

Europe 1 with AFP 5:03 p.m., August 04, 2022

The emergency services, the mobile emergency and resuscitation services (Smur) and the 15 "are in great difficulty operating", alerted Thursday the president of the association Samu-Urgences France (SUdF), successor to François Braun at the head of this organization.

For emergency activity, "there are places where it happened normally" in July and others which have experienced "very significant increases, of 80 or even 100% of activity", declared Marc Noizet on franceinfo, after the publication by the association of a survey on the emergency situation in July.

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Almost all emergency departments lack beds

These services were faced in July with an average increase in activity of 12% compared to the same month of 2021, i.e. 180,000 more visits, according to the online survey carried out by the SUdF among 331 health establishments (i.e. nearly 50% of structures having an emergency service).

95% of emergency services say they encounter "significant problems with the availability of beds", 90% difficulties with medical human resources and 89% lack of non-medical human resources.

In the wake of the recommendations of the "flash mission" entrusted to François Braun before his arrival at the Ministry of Health, 88 of the establishments questioned have implemented a restriction of access to emergencies, including 67 with systematic regulation by the Samu, also in trouble.

Forty-two establishments were "forced to complete a total night closure" of emergencies for a cumulative number of 546 nights in July, according to the survey.

During the day, 23 establishments completely closed their emergencies for a cumulative number of 208 days.

A "medically regulated access", advocates François Braun

Visiting the Nantes University Hospital on Wednesday, the Minister of Health François Braun, who chaired Samu-Urgences France until his appointment to the government, refused to speak of "emergency closure".

It is "a scary term", he pleaded, preferring to speak of "medically regulated access".

"The Minister of Health caught in the act of lying this morning by claiming that no emergency department was closed at night," Christophe Prudhomme, spokesperson for the Association of Emergency Physicians of France (Amuf), citing figures from the SUdF survey.

The Minister of Health caught in the act of lying this morning by claiming that no emergency service was closed at night while the organization he chaired announced that 42 services are closed, that 1/4 filter patients and that 95% have difficulties!

— Prudhomme Christophe (@PrudhommeChri10) August 3, 2022

“The minister is doing his job” and “is there to reassure the populations”, tempered Thursday Marc Noizet, of the SUdF, while alerting on the exhaustion of the personnel.

The SUdF also points in its survey to the difficulties of the regulation services: 86% of the Samu denounce there a "mismatch between the human resources available and the significant increase in activity" observed, 18 Smur had to close.

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Continue the deployment of "flash mission" measures

“Some Samu find themselves at an impasse when they have to redirect certain requests for care, without having any alternative”, adds the SUdF, specifying that in July, calls to 15 jumped by 21.5% compared to the same month in 2021.

To avoid arriving at an "explosive situation" and the possibility of "new departures of medical personnel", the SUdF recommends continuing the deployment of the "flash mission" measures, unveiled at the end of June, as well as modifying the organization of downstream emergency beds or to review staff remuneration.