During this heat wave period, are the emergencies suffocating? In the aftermath of the absolute record for night heat broken in the night from Monday to Tuesday in the capital of the Côte d’Azur, Pierre-Marie Tardieux wants to be reassuring: “At the moment the number of entries is stable.”
Certainly, since the beginning of the summer, the number of patients has increased. “We are at 10 – 20 more patients per day”, indicates the head of the emergency department of the Nice University Hospital. The high temperatures obviously impact the activity, as does the influx of tourists. Over the weekend that has just passed, the rhythm “supported” could have been “control”. “We will see more of the heat wave effect in the three days to Friday.” In short, nothing to do with the phenomenon of last month “which had lasted three weeks”.
However, there is no question of ignoring prevention.
Workforce tensions
As a reminder, it is advisable to drink water regularly, to eat enough, to avoid physical activity, to wet your body and ventilate yourself, to avoid alcohol consumption, to protect your home from heat. . For the elderly, isolation is a real risk. They must stay several hours a day in a cool place, do not hesitate to spray water on their face and take care to hydrate themselves even if thirst does not manifest itself.
Managing decompensation, dehydration and heatstroke: a challenge for the health system. According to the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, “the hospital will cope” despite the ER crisis (1). Does Pierre-Marie Tardieux agree?
“Our situation in the Alps-Maritimes is specific to our department. But we have common problems with other regions, in particular concerning the workforce. We fight, we do job dating, we go to schools…”, underlines the head of the ur pole.departments of the Nice University Hospital which reports to: “We still have national fightsux.” And this, “particularly at the level of hours additional, with the removal of the ceiling requested by all our staff so that they work more while being better paid”. Because the manager does not hide it: even if the situation is in hand, the tension is indeed present: “We must keep in mind that weWe have 350 entries per day. Sometimes work stoppages in the morning for which you have to readapt. No, it’s not easy, but I must say that the teams are all caring and dedicated.”
“We fight daily against theis fermetures”
Should we fear a partial closure of emergencies? As in Gassin in the Var where, for lack of sufficient staff, the emergency department of the Saint-Tropez hospital center had to temporarily limit its access?
“We fight every day so that this is not the case in Nice.” For now, “we hold on”. A daily front with “1500 to 2000 calls per day”. A development made possible with the coordination carried out with liberal medicine coming “to regulate at home”. A line of work that is about to expand next month, with the creation of an SAS: healthcare access service. A tool to provide a “stronger expertise” to the patient.
1. He said it on Friday August 18 on Franceinfo.