In a report addressed to the Minister of Health on the overhaul of emergency services, deputies recommend the establishment of a “single health number”, 113, which would replace 15.
A telephone number “totally dedicated to health” to better direct responses to requests for care and thus relieve the emergency services?
This is recommended by a parliamentary report submitted Thursday, December 19 to the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn by Thomas Mesnier, LREM deputy, and Professor Pierre Carli, head of the Paris Samu, responsible since June for thinking about a overhaul of emergencies.
A unique service dedicated to health
Supported by emergency physicians and patient associations, but already criticized by firefighters and liberal doctors’ unions, this system called the healthcare access service (SAS) is presented by its authors as “the keystone of a new organization of responses to requests for care”, regardless of the degree of seriousness or urgency of the situation.
“Based on a partnership” between liberal doctors and hospital services, and “in connection with the emergency services”, this device should allow all patients to access 24 hours a day and “remotely to a health professional for answers ranging from advice to teleconsultation”. He should also be able to direct to “a consultation without an appointment” and, if necessary, to the dispatch of an Smur or an ambulance.
113 replacing 15
The flagship measure of the report concerns the abandonment of “15”, hitherto dedicated to medical emergencies in favor of “113”, a single number “totally dedicated to health” and which would make it possible to better direct patients who, in more in one out of two cases, dial 17 or 18 for cases that primarily concern the Samu. The 113 would also be available online thanks to an app and a website allowing appointments to be made online. In addition, this “one-stop shop” would coexist with another number “dedicated to relief and security”, 112.
If Agnès Buzyn gives the green light to the project in January, the device could be launched by June 2020 on pilot sites. The objective being, according to Thomas Mesnier, to be “fully operational throughout the territory by the end of the five-year term”.
Reserves on the side of liberal doctors and firefighters
Problem: if emergency physicians see the migration to a single health number positively, this is not the case for the unions of liberal doctors, who would then see their 116-117 number disappear. This is available in 3 regions (Normandy, Corsica, Pays de la Loire) and allows you to contact a general practitioner on call. Quoted by The worldthe Confederation of Liberal Physicians’ Unions has already recalled “its attachment to an identification number such as 116 117, making it possible to separate calls for emergency services from requests for unscheduled care ” and denounced a “non-operational” and “at risk” solution.
Same fear on the side of the National Federation of Firefighters of France, which wishes to keep control of “112”, “the number of the emergency call which picks up in less than fifteen seconds and directly triggers the emergency services with the means adapted”.
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