Health Minister Marisol Touraine wants to make emergencies accessible to all French people in less than 30 minutes by 2017. She has put forward several avenues to achieve this.
Emergencies are “the epitome of public hospital service”, but can still be improved. While greeting the emergency doctors at 8e Emergency Congress, the Minister of Social Affairs and Health Marisol Touraine announced several avenues to optimize access to emergencies throughout the territory.
2 million French people more than 30 minutes from an emergency service
Each year, 20 million French people go to the emergency room… but not always in the best conditions. In her speech to the Emergency Congress, Marisol Touraine lamented that two million French people live more than half an hour from an emergency department. The situation will have to be resolved by 2017, so that everyone can be taken care of in optimal conditions, “wherever we are in the territory. “For this, the Minister advocates” tailor-made “: training in intervention in mountain areas – with 650 volunteers expected at the end of 2014 -, an expansion of the number of SMUR teams, but also the development of helicopters dedicated to emergencies. . No less than 43 orders were placed in this direction in 2014. Dialogue between the various health professionals, from general practitioners to hospitals for dependent elderly people (EHPAD) through medical centers on call, should also develop, underlined Marisol Touraine.
Tracks already announced
Optimizing emergencies also means “anticipating stressful situations”, namely winter and epidemic peaks. This means, of course, improving telephone support, anticipating peak traffic, but above all reducing waiting time within the service. The Minister suggests the generalization of “fast tracks”, rapid care channels dedicated to patients who do not need to be hospitalized.
Marisol Touraine has not forgotten the endless “downstream challenge”, which the majority of emergency services complain about. “Improving care must be carried by the entire hospital and not just by the emergency services,” she stressed. On the other hand, she did not arrive at the Emergency Congress with no new solution. The release of 15 million euros for services in difficult situations, the creation of the job of bed manager, like most of its announcements, had already been presented at the end of 2013.
.
