“We’ve been warning for a year”

Gérald Claudet spent a night hospitalized in a garage at Langres hospital, due to lack of space elsewhere in the establishment. Far from being an exception, this situation is linked to the elimination of around thirty beds last year. A tree that hides the forest.

“I come to wonder why we pay taxes? We are one of the greatest world powers and we are reduced to this!“. There is no shortage of words for Gérald Claudet to describe his misadventure at Langres hospital.

On October 26, he was hospitalized for intestinal pain. He is told that he will be hospitalized for two to four days depending on his recovery.

A first element surprises the patient: he remains hospitalized in the emergency room and not on the floor of the establishment. A member of the healthcare team tells him with a touch of irony “you’re lucky, we didn’t put you in the garage.”

But what he thought was a joke becomes reality at one o'clock in the morning: “I am told that there are too many people in the emergency room and that I must free up the space I occupy to collect the devices that I do not use. Gérald is then transferred to a place that is unusual to say the least in a health establishment: he is installed in the garage which is usually used to park the SAMU ambulance.

I am told that there are too many people in the emergency room and that I must free up the space I occupy to collect the devices I am not using

Gérarld Claudet, Langres emergency room patient

“My arms are falling, it’s total dismay” confides the resident of Seine-et-Marne who came to see his family in Haute-Marne. He finds himself surrounded by two garage doors, in a rudimentary place, covered in raw concrete, separated from his three other “roommates” by a screen covered with sheets.

To document his adventure, he captured this video in which we see improvised rooms in the garage between beds, stretchers and medical equipment.

The place appears to house patients regularly: it is equipped with heat lamps and a heater. We tell him that sometimes, up to 9 patients occupy this garage.

Gérald does not sleep at night: the noises around him exceed 55 decibels according to the measurements he made with his phone.
The next day, his decision was made: “I don’t want to stay another hour here, even if it means having an infusion at home.” In agreement with his doctor, he left the hospital after only one night instead of two to four initially planned.

Some, disillusioned, made fun of this sad situation, like this emergency doctor from Langres who recently resigned. In a Facebook post, he shared a caricature accompanied by the comment “24/7 reception for all types of work: engine temperature check, pressure check, oil change, lubrication, optical correction, change of ball joints, use of diagnostic case, installation of electric carburetor, descaling of exhausts, etc..”

The day after his chaotic sleepless night, Gérald decided not to stop there: he contacted several media, wrote to the director of the hospital, to the ARS, to the Ministry of Health. For the moment, he has not received a response other than the ARS which informs him of the opening of a complaint.a bit like after-sales service, it makes me laugh” confides the disillusioned patient.

According to health associations campaigning for better access to health in Haute-Marne, Gérald's case is the tip of the iceberg: “this gentleman is the spokesperson for all these patients who spent a night, a day in this garage” confides Mathieu Thiebaut, president of the Avenir santé sud Haute-Marne association. According to him, around a hundred people passed through this place, which was more suited to housing utility vehicles than citizens seeking care.

A former patient also sent us a video filmed a year ago in which we can already see hospital beds installed in the same garage.

This situation is not a surprise for health professionals: “We've been warning about the situation for a year now.” says Doctor Véronique Midy, general practitioner and co-president of the Égalité santé association. Around thirty beds, located on the upper floor, have been removed in recent years. “At first it was due to a lack of nursing staff, but now there is no desire to reopen these beds on the part of the administration.” In fact, the entire floor was recently transformed into an office for the administration. The latter initially occupied a neighboring building which was sold to a famous second-hand dealer.

Initially, these bed closures took place in the summer to allow staff to go on vacation. But the temporary has become permanent and the emergency rooms are more and more overloaded.
Worse: the overload is no longer limited to the two seasonal peaks, during the winter period and the summer, but all year round.

“The caregivers are very affected, they know that it is not humane. But they have no choice. They are victims of bed closures” confides the general practitioner, who dreads telling her patients that they are going to be hospitalized, given the reception conditions.

The situation of healthcare provision in the south of Haute-Marne regularly mobilizes citizens and caregivers. On October 19, approximately 1500 people demonstrated 35 kilometers from Langres, in Chaumont, to denounce the establishment of a new hospital in the administrative capital of the department, to the detriment of the current healthcare offering in Langres.

The Equality health and Avenir santé sud Haute-Marne associations are campaigning for the opening of a single structure halfway in the town of Rolampont, which would, according to them, allow only 10% of the area's inhabitants to be more 40 minutes from the hospital's technical platform, compared to 25% in the event of a location in Chaumont.

But the future does not seem to be brighter: the president of Avenir santé sud Haute-Marne, Mathieu Thiebaut, says he feels disrespected by elected officials who would turn a deaf ear to their concerns. And he asks: “Do you have to burn a car to be listened to?”

Less visible than a car fire but with more destructive consequences on the health system: one in two nurses has left the hospital after ten years of work.