To better cope with the tensions linked to the influx of patients, the management of the University Hospital launched its “white plan” on Monday, reorganizing its care activities. Patients reportedly waited up to 92 hours before being transferred to the appropriate departments.
The battle is underway at the Nantes University Hospital. The management of the Loire-Atlantique hospital announced Monday that it had triggered its “white plan” in order to better cope with the influx of patients in the emergency room. Boosted by the flu wave which is reaching a national epidemic peak, emergency attendance has reached its limits in Nantes, with increased waiting times and degraded reception conditions. A tension which reached a dangerous level, the weekend of January 4 to 5, with more than 150 patients welcomed. Well above the risk threshold established at 115 people.
“I am angry, I was shocked to find my dad worse than when he entered the hospital, diminished, changed, in shock and with a hollow face, he who was always very sporty,” testifies to Figaro the daughter of an 80-year-old patient, admitted Thursday to the emergency room of the Nantes University Hospital. Remained without the slightest contact from him for two days, this relative was finally able to find her father on Saturday, at the end of the day, traumatized after having spent 44 hours on a stretcher, distraught with thirst. “A doctor told me that they were overwhelmed, that they didn’t even have enough pitchers and glasses of water for the patients”laments the daughter of this octogenarian patient, who announces that she is filing a complaint for “endangering others” and “mistreatment of an elderly person”. “I am not calling into question the caregivers, who are doing their best, but there are clearly organizational and resource problems,” she adds.
A “permanent tension”
According to CGT representatives at the hospital center, several patients, including some suffering from cognitive disorders, have had to wait more than 92 hours in recent days – instead of the usual 12 hours – before being transferred to the appropriate departments. “This situation is not acceptable and is also not an exceptional situation as our management would like to suggest since the emergency services including that of the Nantes University Hospital are in permanent tension all year round and more only during times of epidemic”indicates in a press release the general secretary of the CGT at Nantes University Hospital, Olivier Terrien.
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The white plan initiated on Monday by the Nantes University Hospital consists in particular of a reorganization of care activities, with deprogramming “targeted” of outpatient surgery care. An increase in hospitalization capacities downstream of emergencies and reinforced cooperation with other health establishments in the department have also been implemented.
According to the latest Public Health France bulletin, published on January 2, the influenza epidemic continues its “strong increase” in towns and hospitals, in all metropolitan regions and in all age groups. Requested by families of patients, worried about the reception conditions of their loved ones, the town hall of Nantes indicated that it would remain in contact with the general management of the establishment, promising “invest for the future” with the construction of the new university hospital.
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