Algeria replaces reception agents by doctors in hospital emergency departments

Algerian health minister Abdelmalek Boudiaf gave an urgent instruction to hospital directors to assign doctors to receive and orientate patients in emergency rooms instead of nurses, security and reception agents.

The new measure is meant to improve emergency services. The instruction will enter into force as from this week in the Mustapha Bacha Hospital in Algiers, according to Professor Mohamed Ghrinic, chief of emergency department.

“A group of doctors are prepared to receive and orientate patients in emergency department. This step came following large deficit in Algerian hospitals in terms of nurses,” he said in a seminar.

“This deficit will continue for three years. Because of that, the ministry replaced nurses by doctors in many fields including reception in emergency departments,” he added.

He also said emergency department at the Mustapha Bacha Hospital receives more than 700 patients from different provinces everyday. “This is a big challenge for the medical staff who works 24h/24h to look after people who come to emergency department for stupid reasons”

“Patients in emergency department at the Mustapha Bacha Hospital wait no more than 40 minutes compared to three hours in Spanish hospitals. Seven million Algerians were received in emergency departments in 2003. Because of that, those departments are the beating heart of hospitals.”