Stretchers, one in single file, for ten meters. On Saturday, September 30, at the hospital in Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), CGT Sdis 66 filmed an impressive queue of stretchers on which patients lay, waiting in front of the emergency room to be treated.
For the unions, this is the last straw. Hospital staff periodically warn about increasing delays in the treatment of patients in the emergency room, including those brought by ambulances and firefighters, who therefore require special attention.
“This Tuesday (October 3, editor’s note) without an ambulance outside, there was a wait of 10.5 hours. With queues like the one in the video, we can probably exceed 36 hours,” Christophe Climaco, from the CGT. Health and Social Action Union. However, he specifies that all people were able to be attended to, although they had to wait a long time.
“Epiphenomenon”
Hospital management declined to speak to BFMTV.com about this situation. The head doctor of the Emergency Unit, however, spoke to the newspaper The independent. If he claims to “regret this wait”, he points out “an epiphenomenon” and the simultaneous arrival of around thirty ambulances “at the same time”.
This version, however, seems distorted by several letters that we were able to consult. In February 2022, hospital staff expressed alarm to management about the need to install an outdoor tent to temporarily manage the excessive flow of patients.
Since then, two other letters have been written, one from the CGT union of the hospital center and another from the CGT of Sdis 66, addressed to the hospital management, but also to ARS Occitanie and the prefecture of the department. They warn about the lack of human resources necessary to receive emergencies.
“During this waiting time, the firefighters present at the scene are faced with the pain and misunderstanding of the victims and their families. The first responders, despite their kindness and empathy, have difficulty explaining this problem,” reads one of these letters. .
A summer “in apnea”
According to the caregivers, the situation there is especially tense. But they are even more surprised that the tense situation continues despite the end of the summer period, during which the population of the Perpignan basin increases considerably.
During this summer “in apnea”, according to Christophe Climaco, the reception capacity was not up to the needs. The deterioration of the service is also periodically reported by patients and their families. According to the union, messages of discontent are frequent.
Firefighters are also alerting of the situation. During this long wait in the emergency room, they cannot mobilize for other interventions.
“When patients are on stretchers, we cannot relieve them. And we cannot leave the victim waiting alone. That is why we stay at the scene and, during this time, we are not in the field of other interventions,” laments the Secretary General of the CGT Sdis 66.
In the coming days, the situation may even worsen. The private emergency room at the Saint-Pierre clinic in Perpignan will close at night from October 26, 2023. Pressure is therefore likely to increase in the hospital.
Source: BFM TV
