Several dozen people, local elected officials, hospital staff and ordinary inhabitants, gathered on Friday evening in front of the emergency room of the Draguignan hospital (Var) to denounce the closure of this service at night, from 8:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m.
The management of the establishment took this radical decision at the end of October following "
a situation of exhaustion
" of the emergency team which no longer allows it "
to continue to carry out its mission under conditions compatible with the requirements. quality and safety of care
", She explained in a statement.
This service, which accommodated between 100 and 150 people before it closed overnight, is currently running with 6 doctors while around 20 would be needed.
According to management, this situation stems from the difficulty of recruiting practitioners "
due to particularly unfavorable medical demographics
".
Read alsoFaced with bed closures, the public hospital at the end of its rope
"
It is indeed a lack of doctors that brings us to this closure, and there is not much we can say about this, because it would endanger everyone, both the staff and the population
", remarks Frédéric Duthé , CGT manager at the hospital center, which shows its determination to "
fight to keep this service
" and its 24 hour openness with the inter-union also formed of FO and South. “
We have been working 100 hours a week for at least eighteen months,
” explains Pierre-Emmanuel Lebas, emergency doctor. “
Already, when there were temporary workers, we were at the cleat, but now that there are no more, it is a cleat that is outdated because we cannot do more, physically and even legally.
», Continues the practitioner.
According to him, the new generations of doctors want to work “
48 hours, but no more
”.
Read alsoHospital: CHUs "regret too rapid analyzes" on bed closures
Faced with this situation, the population of Dracénie, a basin of 100,000 inhabitants located around Draguignan, is today constrained - apart from vital, obstetric, psychiatric emergencies and the reception of women and children victims of violence - , to travel many kilometers at night to reach the emergencies of Fréjus, Toulon or Brignoles.
Coming to accompany his wife who has dislocated her shoulder, Jean-Luc admits his incomprehension in the face of this decision.
"
It's not normal, an emergency department, as its name suggests, is for emergencies, and emergencies do not stop at half past eight
" in the evening, notes this retiree.
