The strike by general practitioners, which began on Monday, "is resulting in an increase of 30% to 50% of calls" to the Samu-SAS, already weakened by winter epidemics, and the situation is becoming "untenable," laments Samu urgences de France (SUDF) on Tuesday, calling for a change in the regulatory framework.
The situation in the SAS (Service d'accès aux soins, Samu which now includes general practitioners) and in the emergency department is "aggravated by the systematic transfer of surgical emergencies from certain private clinics to the public sector", as part of this strike, SUDF emphasizes in a press release.
"In a system already weakened by the flu epidemic, the shortage of hospital beds and the constraints of the end-of-year holidays, working conditions within the SAMU-SAS and emergency services subjected to very high tension have become untenable," writes the union, the main group of emergency physicians.
Emergency services are in a state of "major saturation": "the flows exceed human capacities, imposing the immediate activation of exceptional measures", such as rescheduling non-urgent care.
SUDF reminds everyone that in the absence of a general practitioner or available appointment in town, calling SAMU-SAS remains the best solution to obtain an appropriate medical response.
He therefore calls for changes to the regulatory framework to provide SAS with "more robust" governance mechanisms.
The system must be "recognized as a public service mission with adequate human and financial resources," he argues, calling for the establishment of "an obligation of continuity of service," which would allow the requisitioning of the necessary number of doctors.
SUDF also wants to "allow locum doctors to participate" in evening and weekend regulation, offer "financial compensation" to hospitals when emergency physicians from the Samu are forced to perform the duties of general practitioners, and set up specific units, under the guidance of the Regional Health Agencies, to better organize the beds available downstream from the emergency room, on a territorial scale.
General practitioners, dissatisfied with "political decisions that trample them," began a ten-day strike on Monday, planned to gradually escalate and culminate in a "total shutdown" of operating rooms in private clinics this weekend. According to the president of the Federation of Private Hospitals (FHP), 801 operating rooms could be out of service from January 10th to 14th.
In some departments, the weather complicates matters, with snow and ice causing falls and accidents.
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