Saturation of emergency rooms at Montpellier University Hospital due to the flu epidemic: a report of serious danger filed by the CGT

Un service d'accueil des patients saturé. Midi Libre – Richard de Hullessen

The CGT filed a report of “serious and imminent danger” this Wednesday morning concerning the situation in the emergency department of the Montpellier University Hospital. A saturated service, particularly due to the current flu epidemic. Management must make proposals for improvement in the coming hours.

Longer queues, patients on stretchers waiting to be treated. Like other hospitals across the country, the emergency department of the Lapeyronie University Hospital has reached saturation point. This situation led the CGT union of the establishment to file a report of this Wednesday morning”serious and imminent danger” with its management.

Not enough downstream beds

This procedure, recorded in writing and quite rarely used, requires hospital managers to launch an investigation and quickly bring together the staff representatives sitting on the working conditions committee in order to submit proposals for improvement.

A first meeting was held immediately in the afternoon. “There is a major problem with downstream beds. Patients are waiting too long. This creates tension and insecurity for staff. These are situations that we encountered before during the summer. Now it is becoming very regular”, observes Françoise Gaillard, the secretary of the CGT of the CHU.

Saturation due to the flu epidemic

The situation in recent days is due in particular to the current flu epidemic, which is in addition to the usual winter infections. “A lot of stretchers are arriving but we have little or no room. With each epidemic, we feel like we're reliving the same situations, it's the same pattern. We should really think about the role of the hospital, about bed closures,” insists Pierre Renard, union delegate.