ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Permanent reception at the level of hospital emergencies should be a sanitary priority. AIM: In order to set up a data base that allows identifying failures, to bring forward a certain number of solutions and to elaborate a strategy for promoting first-line emergency services METHODS: We carried out a retrospective descriptive survey of 20853 consultants in the first-line emergency ward of the district hospital of Nefza over a one-year period (2001). RESULTS: At the end of our analysis, we found the following main results: the profile of the emergency consultant is a young person (average age 31.76), of female sex in 52% of cases and benefiting from social security (CNSS or CNRPS) in 40.5% of cases. The average number of consultations is of 57 consultations per 24 hours: essentially during August, October and March. The reason for having recourse to emergency services is dominated by the medico-surgical pathology in 78% of cases and 15.5%. In our survey 3% of the patients were referred to second-line emergencies; the referring motives are essentially dominated by traumatisms (39%). CONCLUSION: one patient out of two is consulting for a false emergency case, probably for reasons of easy access to the emergency services and because of the absence of a day consultation in the basic health care units. On the other hand, the non-availability of diagnostic means in the afternoon and evening increases the number of 2nd line emergency recourse.
