Saturation of pediatric emergencies, shortages of caregivers, deterioration of youth mental health… For several years, the pediatrics and child health sector has been in crisis. To respond to this problem, between 300 and 400 measures were proposed to the authorities to improve care for 0-18 year olds. While the Pediatric Conference take place this Friday, May 24 in Paris, the government presented the day before an “ambitious” plan, around child health, the main objective of which is to accentuate prevention and improve access to care for children. children as well as neonatal care.
A plan which, as explained by the offices of the ministers responsible for Health, Frédéric Valletoux, and responsible for Children, Sarah El Haïry to AFP, is “the fruit of long work on the part of a committee appointed in November 2022 following the triple epidemic (of Covid, flu et bronchiolitis) which had put the pediatric systems under pressure”. This includes a roadmap of sixteen major measures corresponding to 80 “concrete” actions.
Strengthening prevention, a flagship measure of the Child Health plan
According to the statement from Minister of Health Frédéric Valletoux sent to AFP, “this plan is a real turning point in our approach to the health of young people.” Among its key measures, we find the government’s desire to emphasize prevention, by systematizing the completion of the 20 compulsory examinations for the child, and by creating a new compulsory examination at the age of 6in order to detect possible neurodevelopmental disorders, languageor optical.
As the ministers’ entourage clarified to AFP, “the ongoing overhaul of health book of the child will allow for better monitoring of these examinations. The key measures of this plan also include a desire on the part of the government to prevent mental exhaustion or post-natal depression, by reaching the objective of one bed for 1,000 births in neonatal intensive care throughout the country, by 2027.
Easier access to speech therapists
The Child Health plan also provides for facilitate access to speech therapists, without the need to first go through a treating physician. Indeed, faced with growing needs, the government also plans to increase the number of training places from 10% from 2025 to +50% in 2030. The plan also promises to upgrade professionals working in health establishments, as well as pediatric psychologists, whose number in medical-psychological centers (CMP) must increase in the face of warnings about the mental health of young people.
Finally, a large prenatal pediatric cohort of 200,000 families enrolled over four years will be implemented in order to better understand the environmental and psychosocial determinants of the occurrence of pediatric pathologies, such as cancers. As those around the ministers assure, “Children’s health is a priority”this is why a budget of around 300 million euros per year by 2030 is allocated to this child health plan.
Sources :
- AFP
- A “plan for child health” facing a sector in crisis – Le Monde
