Flu epidemic: at hospital, emergency rooms saturated, medical interventions canceled

In the memory of hospital staff, we had never seen this: on the night of Monday January 6 to Tuesday January 7, 2025, the Red Cross and the firefighters were called in to support emergency patients in the hospital. hospital. Saturated emergencies following an influx of victims of the flu epidemic currently raging in .

“It’s a departmental, regional and national trend,” underlines Pierre Best, director of the Chartres Hospitals. “The flu epidemic seems larger and earlier than last year. People who arrive in the emergency room need to be placed on oxygen and hospitalized. But we no longer have beds available in our departments to accommodate them .”

Des solutions alternatives

The emergencies at the Pasteur site, in Coudray, saw the number of patients increase from the end of December 2024, but their arrival has accelerated since Saturday January 4, 2025 with a massive influx on Monday January 6. “We were forced to requisition the emergency short circuit sector (dedicated to the treatment of patients with benign pathologies, Editor’s note) to accommodate patients suffering from influenza syndrome”, specifies Pierre Best.

This short circuit was reopened early in the afternoon, Tuesday January 7. The director of Chartres Hospitals has also decided to deprogram medical interventions until the end of the week in order to free up beds in its hospitalization departments.

The FO unions of Chartres hospital workers and the CGT denounce an “unprecedented” saturation of emergencies, linked to medical desertification – “patients no longer have a treating doctor and they let their situation deteriorate” – but also to a policy of closure of beds which they have opposed “for years. We see what this is causing today. We are demanding the reopening of beds, but also of the staff at the end of the bed.”

Crisis unit

For Denis Gelez, the departmental director of the Regional Health Agency in Eure-et-Loir, it is not a question of a lack of resources but of an “influx of patients which is explained by a lack of response “city doctors, the return from vacation and busier days due to the flu epidemic, but also gastroenteritis. It is mainly elderly people with polypathologies and pulmonary problems who have arrived at the emergency room.”

As of Monday evening, an advanced medical post was set up with the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis) at the Pasteur hospital in Chartres to help staff sort patients. A crisis unit made it possible, as of yesterday morning, to contact follow-up care and rehabilitation establishments, nursing homes (accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people) but also to set up home hospitalization in order to recover beds at Chartres hospital.

The Red Cross, already called upon during the night to care for patients in the emergency room and support caregivers, was responsible for transferring patients when paramedics were not available. Denis Gelez estimated, Tuesday evening, that the situation was managed: “There are only twenty-one patients left waiting in the Chartres emergency room, while there were more than fifty on Monday evening.”

But be careful! “We have not yet reached the epidemic peak,” he warns. The ARS has asked the various territorial health professional communities (CPTS) of the department to extend their unscheduled care periods. »

Avoid emergencies
Faced with the very tense situation, Pierre Best asks the Eurelians to avoid coming to the emergency room as much as possible. “You must first call the Samu and describe your symptoms. It is he who will direct patients to the emergency room, their GP or unscheduled consultations like we offer at the hospital.” During this period of epidemic, it is also recommended to apply barrier gestures: hand washing, social distancing and wearing a mask. A mask has also become compulsory again at Chartres hospital for patients, visitors and staff since December 23, 2024.

-

-

PREV Burglars arrested with…
NEXT The late takeoff of ski jumper Gregor Deschwanden