Violence: Marseille hospitals launch a major security plan

Faced with the ordinary daily violence that plagues the Marseille city and hospital services, Marseille officials are shifting into high gear. The general direction of public assistance-hospitals of Marseille (AP-HM) indeed presented at the beginning of the week a violence prevention plan comprising 30 measures. His goal, to make the hospital a “ sanctuary “ in which caregivers work in complete safety.

A reinforced security system
Among the measures announced, it is notably planned to fit out a few rooms with security locks in the medical and surgical departments. This is to respond to the need to isolate certain patients for security reasons. The measure was, as we remember, claimed for years by theAssociation of Emergency Physicians of France.
Moreover, the‘AP-HM wishes to limit entry and exit points to hospital sites at night to a strict minimum. The more exposed units, which are likely to receive patients wounded by knives or handguns, will be able to physically isolate their premises by closing the access doors, especially at night.
The AP-HM also proposes to equip the personnel having to move alone at night with an individual call device connected to the security PC and making it possible to alert the emergency services. “This device should make it possible to geolocate the agent for rapid treatment,” management told the Medical Press Agency.

Additional measures for emergencies
Regarding emergencies, where the violence is even greater, the departmental public security directorate was asked to reactivate the patrol system, especially at night. In parallel with these night patrols provided by the national police, the municipal police will be asked to carry out the same type of patrols during the day.
A radical measure that was recently requested by Prof. Marc Alazia, head of the emergency department at the Conception hospital, where the attack on a nurse recently took place. Supported by the Hospital Federation of France, the latter wished it is true “The presence in the emergency department of a deterrent police force 24 hours a day. “
To help these police forces in their work, the management also wishes to optimize the video surveillance systems in place with systematic capture of images and use in the event of violence and possibly recording of comments made.
Finally, noting that the main areas of tension are in waiting rooms, one of the measures concerns the establishment at the level of adult and pediatric emergencies of mediation agents who will have the heavy responsibility of defusing potentially explosive situations.

However, where the shoe pinches, it is on the financing of these measures since “several imply to review certain budgetary organizations”, specified the AP-HM. Discussions with the PACA regional health agency are also currently underway on this subject.