While the hospital environment is in crisis, high temperatures are hitting a large part of the territory. A major challenge for caregivers, sometimes helpless in the face of the heat wave.
With the onset of hot weather, hospitals are facing the challenge of the summer period sooner than expected. A painful constraint for French establishments, already out of breath. Lack of staff, equipment, closure of emergency services, caregivers tirelessly denounce their working conditions with strikes and demonstrations. In this context of tensions, the heat wave becomes almost too much weight.
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On Friday June 17, temperatures were around 40°C and 14 departments were placed on red alert by La Chaîne Météo**. An exceptional heatwave episode which put France on alert and which is felt, even in the corridors of hospitals. “In some floors it is 38°C», indignant Alain Essebbar, secretary of the CGT Pellegrin-Bordeaux. The caregivers are tense, it is hot and the means to make the air less stuffy are limited – at least for the staff. Fan, air conditioning, curtains, shutters or functional water fountains, many materials are missing. “In maternity, medical staff are even forced to hang sheets from the windows“, he denounces.
In some departments of the Bordeaux University Hospital, the heat has an impact even on the quality of care. For dental procedures, for example, a certain temperature is required to be able to use resin. The lack of air conditioning makes the product unusable, although it is necessary for the operation, regrets Alain Essebbar. Same story in the hospital center of Ariège Couserans, whose department is placed on orange alert. Heat presents a major problem for the storage of medicines in some non-air-conditioned treatment rooms. Medicine cabinets do not protect against high temperatures and products are exposed to “40, 42°C“When their tolerance threshold is 25°C, explains a nurse from the establishment.
No reception capacity
During such periods of heat, the heat wave, “acute problem», has the effect of highlighting the current dysfunctions of hospitals. This is “additional stress, disability“, sighs Fanny, member of the staff of the emergency service of Oloron-Sainte-Marie (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). “It’s like walking on one leg“. At the CHU, as elsewhere, the future is indeed uncertain. The ARS must decide on the potential closure of the emergency service this summer. Even if it remains open, Fanny believes that the reception of patients, who will probably be more numerous with these temperatures, will not be guaranteed. Since May, the service has been operating in degraded mode, “sometimes, instead of two emergency physicians, only one, or even none, is presentshe explains.
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In 2017, the government launched a “Heatwave Plan” to protect the French. It is stipulated that health establishments must “ensure the organization and continuity of care“. An almost impossible instruction when more than a hundred emergency services in the country would be forced to limit their activity or to prepare for it, according to Samu-Urgences de France.
*Name has been changed
**La Chaîne Météo is a company of the Figaro group.