a call to private clinics to catch up

If the situation is improving in the hospital (with less than 1,500 patients in intensive care, at the lowest since the beginning of October), the functioning of the services, especially in surgery, remains deeply impacted. A year and a half after the start of the health crisis, the planning of operations, a number of which had to be deprogrammed, is still very busy. The patients concerned must wait long months before being able to be operated, points out the UFC-What to choose.

“Congestion of patients”

Based on a survey of 800 patients, the consumer defense association calculated that of operations canceled in the midst of a health crisis (between March 2020 and March 2021), 40% have still not taken place and nearly a third have not even been reprogrammed, explains Laurianne Le Men, health officer at the UFC – what to choose. “Today, we are really facing a traffic jam of patients, and in a quarter of cases, users are not even aware of the date on which their next operations should be held,” she explains at the microphone. Europe 1. “We can imagine the consequences in terms of stress … Normally, we are all supposed to be able to access care when we need it.”

Pain, stress, delayed diagnosis …

As for the patients who were lucky enough to have their operations rescheduled, they nevertheless had to wait an average of seven months before getting a new appointment. In 80% of cases, these patients feel that they suffer as a result of discomfort, pain or stress. 5% of them also evoke loss of luck on their own with a delay in diagnosis. The UFC-que Choisir therefore calls on the public authorities to facilitate the use of private clinics to take charge of these unscheduled operations.