“Non-priority” et “possibly delestable”. Like 60% of the French population, patients at high risk of life will not be spared in the event of scheduled power cuts. This is what Laurent Méric, spokesperson for Enedis, said on Monday December 5 on the BFMTV set. These patients, kept at home, do not “not one of the priority customers defined by the prefectures”, he added.
These remarks echo the power cuts envisaged by the government this winter to avoid any risk of black-out generalized. Asked about the case of patients at high vital risk, Laurent Méric called on them to report to their Regional Health Agency (ARS), so that they could be notified by Enedis two days before any possible cut. “We will call them, we will send them an SMS, an email”, he detailed. They can then be helped, or even led “in a place that will not be relieved”. If they do not respond, an Enedis agent may also be dispatched to the site. Despite these clarifications, questions about the care of these sick people are piling up. But the answers are still unclear.
► Which areas are concerned?
Matignon made it official last week in a circular addressed to the prefects: faced with a level of nuclear electricity production at the lowest in France, six to ten load shedding could take place on the territory during the winter. Targeted and temporary cuts, limited to two hours at the peak of the day, between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. or between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. in the morning, and between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the evening.
The whole territory will not be affected in the same way by these cuts. They “should not affect more than four million customers simultaneously”, according to the government. Some so-called priority sites will not be affected by these power cuts, which will also allow people attached to their line to avoid any cuts.
► Who can escape the cuts?
These sites, considered critical or sensitive by the prefectures, are nearly 14,000 in France. Among them, hospitals, clinics and laboratories. A right of passage which will not be able to benefit from the “high risk patients”, as explained by Laurent Méric at the microphone of BFMTV. Behind this status, however, hide serious pathologies. It includes the sick, hospitalized at home, on artificial respirators at least twenty hours a day, and children fed intravenously. A situation which concerned, on October 15, 3,900 people registered with the metropolitan ARS, according to figures from the Directorate General of Health (DGS).
► What can patients at high risk of life fear?
In the event of a cut, there is a fear of a risk to the health of these patients, in particular those who are placed on a respirator. “For them, electricity is essential. They need it to stay alive.” supports Gérard Raymond, president of France Assos Santé, an association for the defense of patients. He rejects the hypothesis put forward by Enedis of hospitalization during load shedding: “The only good solution is to maintain the energy around the clock in these people. »
These fears are not shared by Frédéric Le Guillou, pulmonologist, who recalls that only “a minority of patients on oxygen are on it twenty hours a day”. “You have to be reassuringsupports the president of the Respiratory Health France association. Everything is already organized. » Laurent Méric’s remarks are in fact part of an information system set up in 1997, to which all electricity suppliers are subject. For years, “they are required by law to inform patients at high risk of life in the event of a power cut, but not to supply them”, confirms the DGS. A procedure that applies to all power outages. Whether they are scheduled or not.
———
The executive is annoyed by the “clumsy remarks” of Enedis
Elisabeth Borne criticized on Tuesday “clumsy words” of Enedis on the sick at home who could suffer from possible power cuts. “People who are sick at home will always be taken care of”assured the Prime Minister during questions to the government. “Our constant commitment is to mobilize everyone to ensure the security of electricity supply”, she added. A few hours earlier, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron had criticized “the scenarios of fear” shared by the opposition, assuring that France was going ” to own “ if everyone did ” his work “.