This summer, like previous ones, the territory is affected by bed closures. Many hospitals are forced to temporarily close their emergency departments to manage the influx of patients.

“It’s not just every summer, but all year round. During the summer period, the situation is more alarming due to the lack of human resources.”explains Marc Noizet, president of Samu-Urgences de France. The departures on leave of caregivers who are not replaced highlight the constant lack of staff.

Emergency rooms closed across the country

Near the coastal areas, where tourist activity increases in July and August, “the activity of emergency services has increased two or threefold,” recalls the head of the emergency services in Mulhouse. In Montaigu, in Vendée, access to the emergency services is inaccessible from July 13 to August 19.

“The Roche-sur-Yon hospital center is forced to absorb the activity of local emergency services and finds itself overwhelmed. This establishment does not have a staffing problem in normal times.”continues Marc Noizet. The crisis is such that it also concerns areas that are little affected by mass tourism. In Mayenne, in the emergency room of Laval and in Dordogne, in Sarlat, hospitals are closing beds.

A wall of shame

In Brittany, caregivers at the Brest-Carhaix University Hospital have erected a “wall of shame”. On A4 sheets of paper, the names of patients, their ages and their waiting times in the emergency room are listed. A 91-year-old woman waited 31 hours, sitting on a stretcher in the hospital corridors. Between July 10 and August 7, 127 patients over the age of 75 waited an average of 23 hours before being treated.

“We wanted to alert the elderly population, who are the first to be affected by the lack of beds,” explains Stéphane Vielmas, operating theatre nurse and CGT union representative at the Brest-Carhaix University Hospital. “More elderly people are going to emergency rooms.” The lack of staff in retirement homes and nursing homes forces families to take care of their elders, which can lead to complications for their health.

“We have to be honest: patients die because they waited too long on a stretcher,” warns Marc Noizet. In November 2023, teams from AP-HP, Inserm and Sorbonne University published the “No Bed Night” survey, which states that a night spent on a stretcher increases the risk of hospital mortality for elderly patients by 40%.

What about healthcare access services?

However, the Emergency Restructuring Pact, set up in 2019 by the former Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, planned to generalize the Health Access Service (SAS). Rather than going to the emergency room for a minor “bobology”, patients are invited to call 15, in order to be directed to the right care channel.

“The SAS are recent and must be gradually expanded in 2025. Work is needed to harmonize between city medicine and the hospital upstream to direct the patient. If we organize this in a hurry, the 15 will be overwhelmed with calls.”specifies Marc Noizet.

An unstable Ministry of Health

Under Macron’s five-year term, seven health ministers have succeeded one another. This instability does not allow for the establishment of a sustainable solution for hospitals in crisis. “With each appointment, we have to start from scratch. There is no long-term monitoring of files.”exasperates the president of Samu-Urgences de France.

According to Stéphane Vielmas, an operating theatre nurse at Brest-Carhaix University Hospital, the funding allocated by the government, such as the 125 million distributed by the ARS in 2023, is not correctly distributed: “This envelope allowed us to have new buildings, beautiful and functional. What use is it when there is no one inside to take care of the sick?”

He denounces the working conditions in which caregivers operate. When they leave school, they work 15-hour days without a break. “I already know that at the end of this summer, young people from our hospital will want to leave. The hospital ends up disgusting them,” continues the nurse.