This is a first response to the crisis in pediatric services and the saturation of their emergency services. The government promises this Sunday “an immediate action plan”, with in particular the local activation of “white plans”. “We are going to take care of all the children who need to go to the hospital”, promised this Sunday noon the Minister of Health François Braun, on BFMTV, asking parents to avoid “going to the hospital when it is not necessary” and to call 15 first. In the process, he announced that he would release 150 million euros for hospital services “under tension”, particularly in pediatrics.
This plan should allow “an increase in staff, provided that we find them”, said the minister on BFM-TV. Friday, in an open letter revealed by Le Parisien, four thousand pediatric caregivers addressed Emmanuel Macron to deplore unsuitable working conditions and care, the results of “irresponsible political inaction”.
“The President of the Republic took note of this arrest and he immediately asked the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health so that an immediate action plan could be put in place”, declared this Sunday on Cnews the door. – government spokesperson, Olivier Véran. “The hospital is facing an epidemic of bronchiolitis (…) it occurs early in the year and therefore we trigger where necessary, the famous white plans to recall additional staff and to have better cooperation in the territories. “, he detailed. He also expressed the government’s determination to “make sure that the situation improves”. The “white plan” contains organizational measures intended to deal with an exceptional health situation or increased activity of a hospital.
In their open letter, the caregivers denounced a series of dysfunctions, ranging from hospitalization of children in unsuitable places, to distant transfers, postponements of scheduled surgical interventions, or even premature discharge from hospital… These difficulties have led to “delays in care” and “the endangerment of children”. According to them, the bronchiolitis epidemic is saturating already “bloodless” services, while “an ever-increasing number of paramedical and medical staff positions are vacant”.
This respiratory disease which affects babies and sometimes leads them to hospital has now spread to almost all of mainland France, apart from Corsica and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. For two weeks, it has resulted in “a marked increase in emergency visits” among children under two, followed by more hospitalizations than last year, said Thursday the director general of the regional agency of Health (ARS) of Île-de-France, Amélie Verdier.
“Strong, even very strong tensions” in Île-de-France
The risk is a saturation of hospitals: in pediatric intensive care, already 14 young patients had to be transferred outside Île-de-France, to the University Hospital Centers (CHU) of Amiens (Somme) and Rouen (Seine-Maritime) notably. “We have strong, even very strong, tensions in the pediatric services of the region”, declared Amélie Verdier, explaining that bronchiolitis was added to the “very significant difficulties” linked to “vacant positions”.
In their letter, the caregivers also highlighted a “loss of meaning” in their profession, “consequence of bureaucratic governance and activity-based pricing, leading to overall exhaustion and a massive departure of hospital staff”. They demanded from the President of the Republic “urgent and lasting measures to promote the return of nursing staff to hospitals with our children” and asked him to “act urgently”.
On Saturday morning, the government already said it was “aware of the problem” through the voice of the Minister Delegate for Health, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo. She said she was counting “on solidarity between hospitals, on solidarity with city medicine” and working on “the longer opening in the evening of medical care homes”, specifying that she was providing the government’s “support” to caregivers. “The Ségur de la santé has made it possible to revalue the health professions. It was a catch-up, we know that we still have to work on the hospital, ”she conceded.