Ten days after the suicide of a patient in the psychiatric emergency room of the Purpan Hospital (Toulouse University Hospital) on February 14, the emotions among the nurses have not subsided. The 49-year-old man waited for ten days on a stretcher for a bed for inpatient admission to a psychiatric ward. This death comes after several other serious events in Toulouse’s emergency room in early February – an alleged rape and sexual assault on two patients.

Locally, on February 20, Health Minister Frédéric Valletoux announced an imminent deployment of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs and confirmed the opening of 15 hospital beds “After emergencies”, promised by the management of the CHU and the regional health authority the day after the tragedy. The minister also demanded “firm measures” to the private sector, which accounts for three-quarters of the territory’s mental health services. A territorial regulatory unit must now make it possible to guarantee a hospital bed to patients who need a hospital bed.

“For years we have been confronted with high blood pressure in psychiatry, the vessels of which are emergencies”, reacts Professor Christophe Arbus, head of the Psychiatry Center, indicating that waiting times in the emergency room for a hospital bed are usually around three to four days on average. “There are enormous emotions in the service, we have exhausted teams”, he describes. Two thirds of the 58 members of the nursing and support team were on sick leave on February 23rd. The white plan, intended for crisis situations, was initiated by the hospital on February 20 and allowed for restructuring and the deployment of other staff.

“The carers had a terrible two weeksreports Julien Terrier, secretary of the CGT in the establishment. They inevitably feel guilty, it is their patient, even if they have nothing to do with it, but also angry because they have been warning about this situation for years. » In recent years, several proceedings have been initiated due to “serious and imminent danger,” recalls the union official, who denounces this “Decline of public psychiatry”, of “Half-measures that don’t get to the root of the problem”.