An extraordinary situation, an extraordinary reaction? In any case, this is the adjective with which the health unions describe the installation of a building in front of the new Civil Hospital in Strasbourg (NHC) three days before Christmas “Mobile health unit” This means that up to eight people can be accommodated and transporters – ambulances and fire engines – can be released more quickly. An initiative, the first of its kind, aimed at reducing the waiting times for emergencies that have increased over the weeks.

“There have been times when ambulances with patients on board have been stuck in the hospital parking lot for two, four, six or even eight hours.” reports Christian Prud’homme, anesthesiologist and secretary of the Force Ouvrière union at the University Hospitals of Strasbourg (HUS), which has increased alert rights and taken legal action. It even happened “that all carriers are shut down at the same time”.

The prefabricated house, scheduled to be in use by January 2nd, allows firefighters to receive and monitor patients, but does not provide medical care; in other words, not the intervention of doctors. “It’s a bit of a temporary reception area, time to reduce the pressure at the emergency entrance and reopen the beds in the rest of the hospital.”explains Céline Dugast, general director of HUS, while the Grand Est regional health authority launched a blank plan in mid-December given the influx of patients and the overload of services in all Alsatian establishments.

Such a plan, which allows non-urgent operations to be canceled or staffing schedules to be reorganized, was recently repealed at the regional level, but “This does not prevent certain establishments from maintaining it at their level depending on the level of tension,” It was stated Friday December 29th, evening, Avenue de Ségur.

“It spreads everywhere and quietly”

And alarm signals are sounding elsewhere: during this end-of-year holiday period, which traditionally puts a strain on the health system – because of a lack of weapons, because beds are closed while the number of patients does not decrease – the situation is also worrying in the Var department, according to union sources , where more and more services have to close at night (one in two, it is estimated in the ranks of the SAMU-Ergences de France, two out of a total of nine), according to the Ministry of Health).

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