According to this barometer, carried out among 260 establishments, 39% of them estimate that the emergency situation has deteriorated in 2024, compared to 46% of establishments that estimate that the situation has remained stable compared to 2023, and 15% who observe a improvement.
“We have seen for several years a fundamental movement that puts an increasing burden on emergency rooms and public hospitals in terms of receiving unscheduled care,” lamented FHF general delegate Zaynab Riet at the organization's press conference of the return to school.
“These difficulties persist and worsen over the summer,” she added, while welcoming the fact that, for the first time since the Covid crisis, hospitals “made the effort to grant the leave requested by staff. In previous years, “it was quite difficult to grant the three weeks,” she said.
The case of private clinics
Among the measures that could reduce the summer pressure on emergencies, the general delegate mentioned a “better distribution of the constraint in terms of the mobilization of actors” of care, in other words a greater participation of private clinics.
Public hospitals frequently criticize private clinics for closing their emergency services, sometimes without notice, in case of staffing problems during the summer, shifting the entire burden to the hospitals.
“We look forward to the publication of the decree amending the system of permanent care in facilities” in the implementation of the December 2023 Valletoux law on access to care, indicated Ms. Riet.
This law gives more powers to regional health agency directors to organize continuing care, including, where appropriate, requiring facilities to participate. In the FHF barometer, 74% of public hospitals estimate that private clinics do not mobilize, or only poorly, to face the difficulties of emergencies.