From June to the end of September, a pair made up of a general practitioner and a medical assistant were on duty at Sion hospital 7 days a week, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The pilot project aimed to improve the care of patients who do not require primary care.
The working population does not necessarily have time to go to their GP in the middle of the day. In the event of a small health problem, the reflex is sometimes to go to the emergency room. The service has shown that it meets a need.
The pilot project, which has just ended, should be reintroduced in the long term. “The presence of a general practitioner in the emergency room gives satisfaction both to the population who goes to the hospital for such a consultation and to the doctors themselves,” rejoices Valais cantonal doctor Eric in La Matinale de la RTS. Masserey.
Opening hours
“The pilot experiment is therefore completely satisfactory and deserves to be continued. This service must be used during the hours when it is available.” Outside of opening hours, the doctors on call, who ensured the operation of the service, remained in too much demand.
“We will have to make adjustments while respecting the guard’s operating hours,” explains Eric Masserey. “A second doctor was on call 24 hours a day, and he was called to the hospital emergency room outside of this consultation period for information that was not a serious emergency.”
Telephone sorting
Eric Masserey specifies: “If it is a question of inquiring at 2 a.m. because we are wondering whether it is serious or not, there must be a telephone screening. In central Valais, it is Med 24. If it’s not urgent, there’s no risk of waiting until the next day without going through the doctor on call, who can’t do much in the middle of the night.”
At the same time, other measures are being studied, particularly among pharmacists. They are trained in the clinical assessment of the most frequent situations and basic emergencies. To broaden their scope of action, Valais is currently discussing a modification of its health law.
Emilien Verdon/asch
#Swiss
