En novembre, le service a comptabilisé 32 interventions à l’extérieur. Midi Libre – Laura Vaillant
While the party is in full swing at the end of the year, the Millau emergency department is not stopping.
“What changes in the department during the holidays?” Dr. Stanislas Laissac, who arrived in the glove city ten years ago, responds with irony – or almost. “We add garlands.”This may make you smile at first, but it describes a very real situation. During the Christmas and New Year period, almost nothing changes in the emergency department of the Millau hospital center. “We are here to care”, humbly states the emergency physician.
Unlike other sectors that slow down during the holidays, the emergency department does not. At this time of year, many medical practices close. More patients turn to the hospital service. “But it's hard to perceive,” specifies Pierre Chabaud, a health executive. “During this period, we noticed that people are less sick, confirms Dr. Bertrand Avez, head of department. It's simple, when people are busy, they don't get sick.”
“Emergency rooms are a life-threatening risk”
The pathologies therefore remain the same: domestic accidents, alcohol abuse, food poisoning… But “Emergencies are life-threatening”, says Dr. Stanislas Laissac. Then there are strokes and heart attacks. In order to stay on track, the teams organize themselves so that the department remains operational. The members take turns to ensure their shifts, as they do throughout the year.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Two doctors and an intern during the day, two nurses 24/7 who change every 12 hours and a nursing assistant. That's the so-called “constant” workforce, with a new addition since June: a reception organizer nurse (IOA). A presence that relieves the other members of staff. “By assessing all patients upon arrival and organizing their care, it relieves caregivers of administrative burdens,” explains Pierre Chabaud. And then, it improves the quality of the reception of users.”
For the holidays, the service is adorned with a few garlands. Midi Libre – Laura Vaillant
The Millavoise specificity
Patients who, precisely, also have injuries specific to the southern Aveyron region. Between the steep roads on which they may be called to go following a road accident (within a 35-minute radius according to the rules in force) and the valleys in which paragliders can fall, the daily life of emergency doctors is far from trivial. “In the summer, we sometimes get called out for a paraglider crash in the Pouncho, explains Dr Stanislas Laissac. And then we go there, we work in collaboration with the firefighters of the Grimp (intervention group in dangerous environments, Editor's note).”
And beyond a particularity among the patients, the human warmth of Aveyron is a real asset for the working conditions. “What's different here compared to big cities is that we get to know the people we work with very quickly, especially on a personal level,” says Dr. Stanislas Laissac, who has experience in Montpellier in the past. We know who we're talking to. It strengthens the teams and from the patient's point of view it's a plus.” An opinion shared by the head of department, Dr. Bertrand Avez, who arrived in 2019. “In a hyper-rural area, we have to work together”, he confirms.
The holidays do not alter the fundamental mission of the emergency services: to care, relieve, save. While the clocks strike midnight and champagne glasses clink elsewhere, in the corridors the white coats watch, run and above all care.