“Several elderly people are desperately waiting for a bed, moaning and crying in the corridor”: two patients are said to have died “after waiting more than 20 hours” in the emergency room

As everywhere in France, the virus flu is currently raging in the Pays de la Loire, causing high tensions in emergency services hospitals in the region.

And while the epidemic has further intensified in recent days, the CHU de Nantes decided to trigger the white plan, level 2 of the establishment’s emergency plans, this Monday, January 6. If the Force Ouvrière union at the Nantes University Hospital “take note” of the triggering of the white plan, he questions in a press release “on temporality” and demands “explanations as to the fact that this was not triggered on December 31 even though the situation required it.”

“Several elderly patients are desperately waiting for a hospital bed, moaning and crying in the emergency room corridor”

In fact, on January 2, waiting times in the emergency room of the Nantes University Hospital reportedly reached “more than 20 hours, even 30 hours, for certain patients”according to Force Ouvrière. The situation would then have deteriorated even further and “two patients died after waiting more than 20 hours”, reveals the union.

“Emergency caregivers work in this context of inhuman tensions where several elderly patients are desperately waiting for a hospital bed, moaning and crying in the emergency room corridornot to mention the loss of opportunities and the deaths which are added to an already too long list”deplores Force Ouvrière.

In conclusion, the union demands “the immediate opening of 120 downstream beds with adequate staff in order to relieve congestion in the Emergency Department, avoid excessively long waiting times and deaths in queue”.