2023-08-18 12:45:11
While 19 departments are placed on heat wave orange vigilance by Météo-France this Friday, French health services are already in difficulty due to the lack of staff, service closures or strike movements.
Are hospitals going to be taken over? France will experience a particularly intense heat wave this weekend, while the regions of the center-east of the country have already been on orange alert for almost a week. This Friday, 19 departments are affected and the heat wave should last until the middle of next week at least.
Temperatures will thus reach dangerous temperatures for health, with peaks of up to 40°C and, above all, a mercury that struggles to go down during the night, which nevertheless allows the body to regulate its temperature.
Regulators Strike
At the Samu regulation center in Toulouse, the phone does not stop ringing, in particular to report discomfort or fatigue. “There, it was a 91-year-old man who was in the middle of a field and who had a heat stroke, we recommend drinking as much as possible and staying cool as much as possible”, says Felix, regulatory agent.
To process all requests, a dozen switchboard operators answer the telephone all day, accompanied by three or four doctors. “It is a question of prioritizing the calls, that is to say directing them to the hotlines or emergency medicine”, explains Dr Pierre Roucolle, deputy head of Samu 31.
An overload of work which intervenes in an already tense context: since the beginning of July, the regulatory agents have been on strike in 71 of the 100 centers which exist in France. They are calling for wage and staff increases – 800 additional positions would be needed.
Reinforcement of staff at the hospital
In the hospital, the situation is also difficult. “There are a number of structures which are closed at night or which have regulation measures, and it is not just the emergency room but the whole hospital”, explains Dr Agnès Ricard-Hibon, spokesperson for the French medical society and head of Samu 95.
“We know that after three or four days of heat wave, we will have an influx of patients to treating doctors or hospitals,” she adds.
To cope, the teams are reinforced. In addition, in the event of large crowds, the possibility of activating white plans in hospitals is not excluded, which makes it possible to mobilize caregivers on this heat wave event and to be able to postpone scheduled hospitalization appointments not -urgent to secure beds.
Agnès Ricard-Hibon thus recalls that it is “important to call your doctor when you have symptoms and if some people fear an emergency, you must call 15 to be well oriented and not find yourself in front of a closed or saturated service. “.
The government has also set up a heatwave toll-free number available on 0800 06 66 66 and elderly or fragile people are invited to register on the municipal register because they can be called regularly to take news.
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