With 4,630 reports in 2024, almost half of which are dead, the report points to the overload of caregivers, organizational faults and the lack of means as major causes.
Avoidable accidents in almost half of the cases
In an annual assessment published yesterday, Tuesday, September 16, the High Authority for Health (HAS) lists a total of 4,630 “undesirable events serious associated with care” in 2024. This report, revealed by Hospimediaalso reveals that almost 44 % of these reports have led to the death of the patient, most often in the hospital or in the clinic. In addition, half of the declarants estimated that the incident was “preventable” or “probably avoidable”.
The tension of the workforce at the heart of the risks
Among the most frequent errors are the dysfunctions linked to the organization of care, the “patient against himself” actions, drug errors, diagnosis, or even problems related to equipment, sterilization or information systems.
HAS notes that “The use of non -permanent staff brings flexibility to establishments for ad hoc management of human resources “but that he can also “generate situations at risk, linked to their ignorance of the habits, equipment and procedures of the service or the establishment“.
These incidents therefore occur more frequently during periods of organizational fragility. In 58 % of cases, the accident was “unrolled during a vulnerability period“, when “The workforce of professionals are incomplete“And the”smaller“, especially at night, the weekend or during the holidays.
Better train staff and improve transparency cultivation
Consulted, Dr. Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of True Medical, recalls that “These serious adverse events are increasing in hospital in France “but that this increase reflects above all “An improvement in the declaration system: professionals know the system better and dare to report more accidents associated with care “.
However, he recalls that the sub-declaration remains massive. “On all events having to be notified, only a low percentage is identified, which limits the statistical scope of the data and prevents a reliable analysis of the real situation“.
According to him too, the deep causes of these errors are organizational. “”The main factors of errors are more of working conditions (overload, lack of communication, failing organization, turnover of staff …) than lack of control “.
So multiply the administrative control positions or ‘quality’ may above all increase the hospital bureaucracy, without direct effect on the field and the safety of the patient, estimates the emergency room.
“”The solution is a culture of transparency, the training of personnel in reports and the improvement of nursing teams, not administrative stack “.
Dr Kierzek: “Our hospital system is at the bone“”
Dr. Kierzek also recommends learning from his mistakes. “”Optimization is based on the return of experience, the active participation of caregivers in the analysis of errors and the correction of concrete dysfunctions rather than on the multiplication of audits and centralized reporting “.
His observation is more than severe. “”Our hospital health system has reached its limits and is ‘to the bone’. Under number, concentration of hospitals, sick factories … These logics are reflected in more risk of errors and human lives. It is urgent to return to a model on a human scale, close to stable and motivated teams “.
Invest more in caregivers and less in managers distant from the field
But what to think when the Prime Minister explains that the deficit in public finances is linked to the overinvestment in the hospital? Dr. Kierzek does not ignore the money invested but is indignant at its destination and administrative and accounting management, disconnected from the reality of caregivers.
“”It is a waste of public money, invested where it should not be and entrusted to administrative managers who do not reason in the short term, without any vision of sustainable investment. This is the fruit of political decisions taken by officials who know neither the care nor the organization of health establishments. Always more with always less … by force, everything ends up giving in! “ he concludes.