A few weeks ago, the Langres hospital was in the spotlight after patients highlighted the use of a garage to hospitalize some of them. An injunction to close this site was sent to the hospital by the ARS, which decided to launch an internal investigation and an audit with the SFMU, the French Society of Emergency Medicine.
Hospitals in South Haute-Marne at the heart of tensions
In Langres and Chaumont, hospitals are struggling with their capacity. Hence the obligation, for emergency caregivers in Langres, to find third-party solutions, such as with the use of this garage. Hospitals in South Haut-Marne are in the process of restructuring, but two associations are contesting the project: Egalité-Santé and Avenir Santé sud Haute-Marne. Two new hospitals must be built in Chaumont and Langres, by 2028, to cope with the difficulties of the hospitals in Chaumont, Langres and Bourbonne-les-Bains. A gradation of care will be offered. A choice rejected by the associations. They are campaigning for the unique opening of a structure, halfway in the town of Rolampont.
For Véronique Midy, co-president of the Egalité-Santé association, dialogue is no longer happening with the institutions.
The associations are calling for a moratorium on this restructuring which will require 140 million in public money to build two structures which, according to them, will not meet the needs of patients and will continue to put caregivers in difficulty. According to Véronique Midy, co-president of the Egalité-Santé association, this project is not adapted to the needs of the region.
Inadequate solutions, denounced by the former head of emergency at Langres
As for the Langres hospital, if the management does not wish to communicate, this is not the case for everyone: Vincent Escudier, emergency doctor at the hospital, former head of the emergency department, spoke at length to microphone of the editorial staff of Magnum la Radio. He denounces the responses provided by the ARS which are not at all in keeping with the reality on the ground.
Dr Escudier also points out the lack of doctors, which, combined with the lack of space, leads to these excesses. He believes that we need to review the attractiveness policy to bring in doctors. For him, the ARS only offers false solutions. He points to deeper problems and an overall denial of reality for the ARS.
A problem that is only being moved
If last October the video of the patient which showed his treatment in the emergency garage caused controversy, the ARS reacted by ordering the closure of the garage. But the lack of space and staff still exists. The patients had to be replaced, particularly in corridors, on stretchers. Corridors which are not made to accommodate stretchers… And stretchers which are not made to accommodate patients over a long period, beds making it possible to reduce the risk of bedsores.
For Dr Escudier, the current system which has reached the end of its possibilities should be put back on the table and beds reopened. It also calls into question the project to restructure Haut-Marne hospitals, which will, once again, reduce the number of available beds. Beyond the regional bed management program, other solutions have been put forward by the ARS. For Vincent Escudier, these are once again unsuitable solutions.
Haute-Marne is one of the departments with the worst medical density in France. Vincent Escudier puts forward some telling figures: there are around 60 general practitioners per 100,000 inhabitants, or half the national average.
