Seven months after the launch of the national council for the overhaul of the health system, Minister François Braun presented his plan to reorganize health care services. In addition to the wish to see young doctors settle in liberal or even to double the multi-professional health centers, he announced a new measure in order to respond to the tensions linked to the demand for care.

During the second plenary meeting of the National Council for Refoundation (CNR), the minister, a former emergency physician, repeated his desire for generalization of access to care services (SAS), starting this summer, according to Capital. A new acronym will be associated with Samu when the patient seeks to contact his doctor, who is unfortunately unavailable.

“A first medical regulation assistant (ARM) responds in 30 seconds and takes less than a minute to assess the situation. Either he redirects the patient to the Samu in the event of a life-threatening emergency, or he is transferred to a regulating doctor who will direct it to the best” as explained by Michel Durenque, doctor at the Lot-et-Garonne SAS. The response system is partly revised when a customer dials 15. This new redirection is intended to guide patients mainly during the day during the week and on Saturday mornings.

Note that the call may very well lead to a consultation by contacting a doctor available for an appointment. But, as Marie Bonneau, a young regulating doctor, reminds us, “calling the SAS will not necessarily lead to a consultation”. In addition, a simple telephone medical advice is sometimes enough to solve the patient’s problem.