It’s the worst day to go to the ER, new study finds

Who hasn’t already spent hours and hours waiting in the Emergency Department? According to figures published by the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees) on December 12, 20 million passages were recorded in France in 2023, or around 55,000 per day. It’s huge. For comparison, in 1996, the Drees recorded 10 million emergency visits per year. Nursing and administrative staff must therefore care for twice as many people today as almost 30 years ago.

“Emergency services must adapt to receiving a number of patients that sometimes varies extremely from one day to the next” further notes the authority. The influx of patients can be 20% higher on busy days. Even greater variations are observed at department level with sometimes up to 34% more patients to be accommodated between high and low activity days. This gap exceeds 50% in Hautes-Alpes, Corsica, Mayotte and Lozère, and is between 40% and 50% in 12 other departments, including Orne, Vosges, Yvelines and Vendée.

Differences are also observed depending on the day. And contrary to what you might think, it is not on weekends that you are most likely to wait for hours in the waiting room. No, it’s Monday. In 2023, Monday emerged as the busiest day in Emergency Departments in 92 departments with daily activity 11% higher than that of other days. As a reminder, coming to the Emergency Department must respond to “urgent” symptoms. For example: difficulty breathing, severe burn, significant bleeding, violent trauma, chest pain, inability to move a limb, difficulty speaking, convulsions, sudden loss of vision (one or both eyes)… These same symptoms prompt you to call 15 (Samu) if you cannot travel.