As soon as the hot weather starts, the hospitals face the challenge of the summer season earlier than expected. A painful constraint for the French institutions, already out of breath. Lack of staff, equipment, closure of ambulance services, guardians tirelessly condemn their working conditions with strikes and demonstrations. In this context of tension, the heat wave becomes almost too heavy.
On Friday, June 17, the temperature was around 40 ° C, and a red alert was announced in 14 departments by La Chaîne Météo **. An episode of exceptional heat, which France has put on alert, which is felt even in the corridors of hospitals. «On some floors it is 38 ° COutraged Alain Esebbar, Secretary of CGT Pellegrin-Bordeaux. The guardians are tense, it is hot, միջոց the means to suffocate the air less are limited, at least for the staff. Air conditioner, air conditioner, curtains, shutters or functional water fountains, many materials are missing. «During childbirth, the medical staff is even forced to hang the sheets from the windows“, He condemns.
In some wards of Bordeaux University Hospital, the heat even affects the quality of medical care. Dental procedures, for example, require a certain temperature to be able to use the resin. Lack of air conditioning makes the product unusable or necessary for operation, regrets Alain Esebbar. The same story at the Ariège Couserans Hospital Center, whose ward is set on an orange alarm. Fever is a major problem in some non-ventilated clinics for storing medicines. Medical cabinets do not protect against high temperatures և The product is subjected to “40, 42 ° C:“When their tolerance threshold is 25 ° C, the nurse from the institution explains.
There is no possibility of admission
In such hot periods the heat wave, “acute problem“, Has the effect of emphasizing the current dysfunctions of hospitals. This “Extra stress, disabilitySighs Fanny, an ambulance officer from Oloron-St-Marie (Pyrenees-Atlantic Islands). «It’s like walking on one foot«. At CHU, as elsewhere, the future is indeed uncertain. The ARS is due to decide on the possible closure of the ambulance service this summer. Even if it remains open, Fanny believes that admission of patients, who will probably be more at these temperatures, will not be guaranteed. The service has been operating in a degraded mode since May.Sometimes there is only one or even none of the two ambulance doctors presenthe explains.
In 2017, the government launched the Heat Wave Plan to protect the French. It is stipulated that healthcare institutions must “ensure the organization and continuity of care«. According to the Samu-Urgences de France, it is an almost impossible order when more than a hundred ambulance services in the country will be forced to limit their activities or prepare for it.
* Name has been changed
** La Chaîne Météo is a company of the Figaro group.
Source: Le Figaro
