Due to a lack of emergency doctors available during the summer, some SMURs had to close their doors. A 43-year-old man died in Aude.
“There is a real stall this summer in the emergency services”. Christophe Prudhomme, spokesperson for the Association of Emergency Physicians of France (AMUF), expressed the fears of the profession in the face of the closure of mobile emergency services and resuscitation (SMUR) during the summer.
These services, attached to hospitals, made up of medical vehicles and their teams, deliver intensive care at the scene of accidents, illnesses or childbirth. However, according to the AMUF, they are not always insured this summer. For example, two SMURs in the Aude department have closed 13 days and 4.5 days respectively since the beginning of July, confirmed to theAFP the regional health agency (ARS) Occitanie.
Lack of responsiveness guilty
The closure could have gone almost unnoticed, if a 43-year-old man had not died of a heart attack on August 10. “The arrival of the resuscitation team was very late because of the closure that day,” said Christophe Prudhomme. The ARS informs for its part that a corresponding doctor intervened, but without success.
To alleviate staff tensions, nurse firefighters can be mobilized, just like the doctors of the Samu. The agency also indicates that efforts are being made to fill vacant positions.
Tensions in Île-de-France
“We have a degradation of our health system which results in the fact that, in a certain number of regions, there are no longer doctors”, worries Christophe Prudhomme, calling into question “the conjunction of budgetary constraints , the shortage of doctors in certain areas and the arduous nature of the emergency room job ”. And the tensions are not limited to medical deserts. Even in Île-de-France, emergency physicians from SMURs can be scarce.
Amuf now wishes to be heard by the Minister of Health, “as soon as possible, to present her proposals for both reorganization and technical and personnel resources”.
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