In Rochefort in Charente-Maritime, patients are asked to call 15 before going to the emergency room. The hospital is facing an epidemic of respiratory illnesses like the flu and has no beds available.
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The emergency room at Rochefort hospital in Charente-Maritime is seriously overheating. Since Friday January 3, the establishment has faced a massive influx of patients suffering from respiratory pathologies, in particular influenza. And the hospital no longer has beds available to accommodate them.
“They stay in the corridors or in boxes”we are told in the emergency room. This morning, around ten people were waiting for a bed in the hospital wards. “Our capacity is 260 beds and apart from pediatrics and maternity, everything is full”explains Béatrice Cramier, on-call director of the hospital center.
The hospital therefore asks residents to call 15 before going to the emergency room, to possibly be redirected to another service. “This situation is combined with the fact that the other establishments in the department are also in tension.”adds Béatrice Cramier. The hospital has no way of transferring patients.
This emergency regulation is, for the moment, planned until Sunday evening. “We check in several times a day with the Regional Health Agency and if beds become available, because many stays only last three or four days, we may have to end them before”details Béatrice Cramier.
