Following the death of a woman in the care of a drunken anesthetist in the Orthez maternity at the end of September 2014, a UMP deputy considered that it would be good to make the use ofbreathalysers at the entrance to the operating theaters. Convinced of the merits of such a precautionary measure, MP Lucien Degauchy has already tabled a bill in this direction.
“I myself have blown breathalysers dozens of times when I was a driver, and I found that to be quite normal. If it is a question of saving lives, everyone must lend themselves to a certain discipline, ”said the septuagenarian deputy. For him, the case of Orthez maternity would be far from being isolated: “Other cases of medical errors linked to alcohol abuse have already been revealed in recent years, and even if these various dramatic facts remain few, they show us the limits of our legal arsenal. “
A proposal strongly criticized by practitioners of the block
But while the medical world is mobilizing in the face of Health bill by Marisol Touraine, the idea is far from welcome. In an explicit statement to say the least, the Le Bloc union, which brings together surgeons and anesthetists, indicates that it “awards the prize for stupidity to UMP deputy Lucien Degauchy”. He accuses her of bringing “a bad response to a real tragedy” about the death of the maternity ward of Orthez. And while the government “wants a forced march to pass a health law for the stateization of liberal medicine”, the union calls on the deputy and the entire opposition to “deal with the real problems of the nation by health matters. The Bloc recalls that the phenomena of drunkenness in operating theater remain “isolated”, and that they will not be regulated by law. According to the French Society of Anesthesiologists, between 1 and 2% of anesthesiologists have an alcohol addiction, against 15% of the French population on average.
To parody the MP’s initiative, the union drafted its own bogus bill, “as stupid and provocative”, aimed at making alcohol testing compulsory for elected officials before any legislative debate. But unlike Lucien Degauchy, the operating theater practitioners announced that they “did not have the claim, or even the wish, to see it one day applied. “
The member’s bill was referred to the Social Affairs Commission. At this time, it is not known whether it will be examined by theNational Assembly.
And you what do you think ? Is this a necessary measure or an exaggeration? Come and discuss it on the forum.
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