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| News from SOS Médecins France |
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Proposals put forward by SOS MEDECINS FRANCE to improve healthcare and emergency systems :
Thanks to their experience and organization (reception and transfer of calls, use of new technology, epidemical follow-up) SOS Médecins is able to gather the efforts of all the professionals involved in the healthcare field to respond to the needs of the population timely and efficiently. In 2000, during their press conference of December 14, SOS Medecins introduced proposals aiming at improving emergency services. For instance, SOS Medecins is thinking about creating a partnership with the SAMU in order to improve the quality of their service.
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 The problems to be handled are numerous and important :
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- Decreasing number of professionals entering the medical field ;
- Insecurity ;
- Increase of healthcare-related costs ;
- "On Duty" doctors tend to lose their motivation because medical visits in private houses are very little reimbursed ;
- Saturation of the emergency services in hospitals ;
- The population is increasingly inclined to ask for proximity services and to develop a consumerist behavior ;
- Saturation of the SAMU because of an increasing number of people calling for minor health-related problems.
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Long-term and efficient solutions should be based on the following :
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1. Healthcare professionals have complementary roles ;
2. All of the healthcare professionals and partners should gather and look for potential dysfunctionment in the current healthcare system ;
3. Other complementary emergency networks should be developed around SOS Médecins ;
4. A vast educational program explaining to the population when and how to contact different emergency services should be launched ;
5. Doctors' training should be improved and training sessions should be developed within SOS Medecins ;
6. Hospitals should focus on their primary mission and reject false ''good ideas'' such as medical houses ;
7. Medical interventions should be revalorised.
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1. Complementarity of the different medical services :
Capacity (number), efficiency (value), willingness (ethics) and technology ensure quality if applied all together.It is also important to see the complementarity of the different services :
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 As far as ''proximity medicine'' is concerned, private doctors provide a very good service 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Emergency services and firemen intervene in case of serious accidents.
Hospitals' emergency services receive patients requiring heavy medical care. Only emergency doctors and firemen should direct patients to these services.
Free and unrestricted access to any of the above services is a problem because a patient in need may then not have access to the appropriate service because it is saturated. Free and unrestricted access to these services weakens the extraordinary network established early eighties.The complementarity between the above services MUST be a priority for the administration, health insurance, hospitals and private medical doctors.
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2. All of the healthcare professionals and partner should gather and look for potential dysfunctionment :
The healthcare system should be evaluated and any type of dysfunctionment should be identified and made public. Healthcare is a serious public issue and should therefore be taken seriously.
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3. Development of the emergency network around SOS Médecins
The identification of true problems should weaken alarmist views. However, it is required to create a committee responsible for the emergency ser vices. Its function will be to evaluate the efficiency of these services on a regular basis, and to keep a close eye on the population's health.
SOS Medecins offers to combine its efforts with those of private doctors in order to improve the efficiency of the emergency service. For instance, SOS Medecins is planning to provide family doctors with a direct number in order to optimize patients' care.
This will allow the following :
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To make the emergency role of every medical service (such as hospitals, fire department…) very clear.
To better appreciate the role of new structures such as "medical houses".
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4. To launch a vast educational program explaining to the population when and how to contact the different emergency services :
It is very important to inform and educate the population, and this especially in a time when people are increasingly seeking medical assistance (due to an increasingly consumerist behavior).Family doctors must be placed at the core of the healthcare system what to do in case of an emergency. and going to the emergency service of a hospital should remain an exception. Doctors should have a voicemail telling their patients what to do in case of an emergency (depending on the nature of the emergency).SOS Médecins is offering to launch this educational campaign themselves and educate the population through their own doctors.
5. To improve medical training for doctors and develop training sessions within SOS Médecins itself :
Every student should be given training in the emergency services (for adults and children) during the course of their medical studies.
These training sessions should teach medical students both theory AND practice.
Every medical student should also be given the possibility to work for SOS Médecins for a one-year period.
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6. Hospitals should focus on their primary mission :
Patients going to the emergency service but whose health does not require the intervention of the emergency service should be redirected to their family doctor.
This new attitude should allow real emergency patients to be taken care of timely and efficiently.
The creation of 'medical houses' in the proximity of hospitals would result in the saturation of emergency services since they would play the role of preliminary dispatching location (i.e. they would have to do the required check-ups before they decide whether the patient should be immediately taken care of or sent to their family doctor). However, the creation of 'medical houses' should be made possible under certain conditions :
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They should not be another but a complementary tool. Moreover, they should not replace medical visits to private houses since they are an integral part of patients' rights.
They should be a substitute in areas that tend to be deserted such as rural or deprived /unsafe areas...
It should not be mandatory for a patient to go to a 'medical house'.
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7. Medical interventions should be revalued :
Medical interventions are no longer highly regarded and medical visits are not sufficiently reimbursed. And yet, everybody agrees on the efficiency of medical visits in private houses. Two times out of three, patients do not have to be hospitalised thanks to medical visits.
Day, night and weekend visits must be equally revalorized.
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SOS Médecins France has initiated discussions with public and private partners. However, given the seriousness of the situation -many things need to be done and this quickly- SOS Médecins France suggests that authorities and elected members should be associated to these discussions. Indeed, their power and their legitimacy will enable them to make important decisions.
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