Access to care service: what is this new system announced by Gabriel Attal and supposed to relieve emergency room congestion ?

Le SAS est “un service d'orientation à la population” lorsque le médecin traitant du patient est indisponible (photo d'illustration). National Cancer Institute – UNSPLASH

The Prime Minister wants each department to have an access to care service (SAS) from this summer of 2024.

"As of this summer, each department must have an access to care service, with professionals organized to ensure permanence of care", declared Gabriel Attal on Tuesday January 30, 2024 in his general policy speech to the Assembly.

This access to care service (SAS) was provided for by the Emergency Reorganization Pact in 2019. It must be generalized in France this year as announced at the start of the year. year the Prime Minister.

The implementation of this new service was initiated by former Minister of Health François Braun in 2020, with a pilot phase carried out by 22 SAS in 13 different regions.< /p>

"Orient the population"

Its objective ? "Meet the population's demand for vital, urgent and unscheduled care anywhere and at any time, thanks to a chain of care legible and coordinated between the health actors of the hospital and the city of the same territory, can be read on the website of the Ministry of Labor , health and solidarity.

In practice, the Ministry of Health describes it as "an orientation service to the population" when the patient's attending physician is unavailable. 

A regulatory doctor

According to Catherine Vautrin, the Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, quoted by BFM, "the SAS is 15, this telephone number that each of our fellow citizens knows. At the end of the phone, you have someone who is a regulatory doctor, who has the ability to respond to your situation and decide what can be done for you, where you need to be. go and what you should do".

A hundred centers by summer

On the telephone, the healthcare access service professional can provide advice "provide medical advice"< /em>, "offer a teleconsultation", refer to "a unscheduled care consultation" of community medicine or "to an emergency service", or even "trigger the intervention of a SMUR or medical transport" , summarizes The internet user.