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“We risk the death of a child”: pediatric emergencies saturated in the midst of a bronchiolitis epidemic

Pressured by the bronchiolitis epidemic and short of staff, pediatric emergency services are saturated. An unsustainable situation that endangers the lives of children, caregivers warn.

Nursing staff are under pressure again. The arrival of winter and the increase in cases of bronchiolitis are already saturating the pediatric emergencies of many hospitals. To the point that some caregivers are going on strike.

In Kremlin-Bicêtre, hospital staff denounce increasingly longer waiting times for patients and demand an increase in staff.

“We are three nurses and two caregivers for 150 visits a day. Children wait up to ten hours before seeing the doctor. Some wait 14 hours on a stretcher before being hospitalized,” warns a striker who prefers to remain anonymous.

“We risk the death of a child”

Normally, “the child is registered and then seen by the nurse within 15 minutes,” but at this hospital, a child can “wait 1h30 before being seen.” “We run the risk of a child dying,” says a caregiver.

Seven metropolitan and three overseas regions are currently in the epidemic phase of bronchiolitis, while the other five are in the “pre-epidemic” phase, according to Santé Publique France.

This epidemic will mix this winter with those of flu and gastroenteritis, Andreas Werner, president of the French association of outpatient pediatrics (AFPA), warned this Saturday, November 30, on BFMTV. However, “there is not enough staff,” laments this doctor.

“The situation is a little better in the south than in the north, but even in the Avignon hospital the average waiting time to see a doctor is four hours,” he underlines.

Bronchiolitis: how to avoid a new epidemic?

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This prolonged wait endangers the health of children and encourages the transmission of viruses in waiting rooms. “You bring your child with bronchiolitis, but since your neighbor has rotavirus or flu, you leave with another illness,” illustrates Andreas Werner.

In the most saturated emergency services, “we are forced to classify and not retain certain children due to lack of space,” he warns.

According to the president of the AFPA, if the winter season explains the current crisis, the causes are structural. “The situation has persisted for a long time. We have worked hard and made proposals at the pediatrics conference, but there has been nothing.”

Author: François Blanchard
Source: BFM TV

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