The Senate sounded the alarm : the service de santé des armées (SSA) would today be in a " critical situation ", "caught in the crossfire between the decrease of its resources and the increase of its missions," noted the co-authors of the report, Jean-Marie Bockel and Christine Prunaud, during the presentation to the press of their text Tuesday, June 23. They are asking for a "a re-evaluation of its ways" on the occasion of the updating of the law on military programming (LPM), expected in 2021.
Read also The health service of the armies, between Covid and "opex"
"With less than 15 000 people and 1.4 billion euros of budget, the SSA has lost 1 600 posts in 5 years and it's missing at least 100 doctors," says the senator, Christine Prunaud, noting that the service "does" turns " today, thanks to its 3,000 reservists ". However, despite these cuts, the staff of the SSA is very strongly urged to " accompany the intense involvement in the operations of the French armies ", particularly in the Sahel, noted the report. Thus, he notes, the surgical teams of the department have been projected in the operations two times more often than expected in the past year.
Read also Coronavirus : cases of suspects on the "Charles de Gaulle" well in advance of April
The contribution to the fight against the Covid-19
in Addition to the medical support of the armed forces, which is its primary mission, "the SSA has provided a significant contribution to the operation Resilience" which oversees the military means mobilized to help France to cope with the health crisis : host of the patients in the hospitals training of the armed forces (HIA), creating ad hoc and deployment of an intensive care unit in a tent (EMR) in Mulhouse, france and then to Mayotte, or transfer by air of ill grace in the service of resuscitation steering wheel Morphea. A mobilization all the more remarkable that the SSA " represents only 1 % of the supply of care in France ", says the report. This support to a civilian health system under pressure will be worth to the SSA to be particularly honoured in military ceremony on July 14 in Paris.
Read also Coronavirus : this means that the armed forces have in reserve
"The law of military programming 2019-2025 provided for the judgment of the deflation of the staff of the SSA, and then their stabilization until 2023, and finally their ascent, moderate, above and beyond," but "this seems insufficient," argued senator Jean-Marie Bockel, also suggesting measures 'to help retain staff surengagé and attract civilian personnel" within the SSA.
