Hospital: Women, Black people treated less seriously in emergency rooms, study finds

Are all patients presenting to the emergency department treated equally? Six years after the death of Naomi Musenga, a young woman who died in December 2017 after being abused by cameraman Samu, who had just been charged with “failure to assist a person in danger,” the study has renewed the debate. According to this study, published in December in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine and shared with Midi Libre, emergency workers treat women and black people less seriously than men and white people.

The study was carried out last summer among 1,563 people working in emergency services in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Monaco. The authors sought to evaluate the impact of sexist and ethnic prejudice on the early treatment of acute coronary syndrome, which according to health insurance data is characterized by very severe chest pain with a feeling of oppression.

They distributed a questionnaire to the respondents. They were asked to prioritize treatment for fictitious patients of different genders and ethnic backgrounds based on a photograph and clinical case description.

The authors concluded that “viewing simulated patients with different characteristics changed the prioritization decision.” In other words, for similar cases the level of priority was not the same depending on the characteristics of the patient. In this case, men were given higher priority than women; and white patient cases were considered higher priority than black patient cases.

“Mediterranean syndrome”

In France, an investigation carried out in 2018, a few months after Naomi Musenga’s death, had already found discrimination against emergency patients. Under the leadership of several associations, it highlighted the “Mediterranean syndrome widespread in the medical profession.” The theory is that people of North African descent tend to exaggerate their pain, meaning they are taken less seriously when they come to the emergency room.

“Fantasy” was the answer to Parisian François Brown, then president of Samu-Ergences France. “In medical regulation, we take into account the identity of the caller. The interrogation is different depending on whether he is talkative or reserved… But there is no connection to nationality,” he assured.