2024-01-05 06:03:00
the essentials This first week of January is marked by an influx of patients in adult hospital emergency rooms. Tension is high on the Purpan and Rangueil sites which have posted unprecedented occupancy rates. The hospital mobilization plan under pressure is activated in Haute-Garonne.
Since the start of the week, adult emergencies have been overflowing in Toulouse. While the situation was already tense before the holidays, due to a lack of hospital beds, it has clearly deteriorated to reach an unprecedented level. Wednesday evening, the Regional Health Agency (ARS Occitanie) asked all public and private establishments in Haute-Garonne to implement the hospital management plan at level 1. This “internal mobilization plan” aims to ask all stakeholders to organize themselves to free up beds so as not to saturate emergency departments. The same plan was triggered for the neighboring department of Tarn-et-Garonne. According to an estimate provided by the ARS in mid-December, nearly 18% of medical beds and 26% of surgical beds are currently closed in Haute-Garonne.
450 visits per day to the emergency rooms of Rangueil and Purpan
“Tuesday morning, we had 450 visits to the emergency rooms in Rangueil and Purpan, compared to the usual average of 350. Wednesday morning, at 8 a.m., the emergency rooms in Purpan had an occupancy rate of 143%, those in Rangueil were at 175%. . In the evening, we were at 200% on the two sites… I had never seen that”, testifies Dr Béatrice Riu, president of the hospitalization commission of the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Toulouse.
“I’ve never seen that”
Behind these figures, dozens of patients have to wait on stretchers in the corridors. “Patients lying down represent a quarter of emergency admissions, they are the ones we need to hospitalize. The flow of these patients has increased in recent days and the number of hospital beds available is too low. We cannot get by with 34 beds available like Tuesday or 50 today when we know that we hospitalize on average 60 patients per day”, adds Dr Béatrice Riu.
Grippe, Covid, VRS
The needs are particularly great in pulmonology, geriatrics and cardiology to treat fragile people who suffer from winter pathologies (flu, covid-19, RSV or respiratory syncytial virus).
Thursday afternoon, the first effects of the stressed hospital plan were palpable. “Downstream beds have been freed, everyone is in working order, we are finding more normal attendance rates in the emergency room. At Larrey hospital, the pulmonology department will reopen 6 beds and we will mobilize, throughout on weekends, bed managers to find beds more quickly,” says Dr Béatrice Riu.
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Medical guards: a new organization starts in Haute-Garonne
Faced with this situation, the population is invited not to go to the emergency room unnecessarily. Patients are invited to contact their attending physician and, in their absence, to dial 15 or 39 66 in order to receive information or be directed to a place of care. Since January 1, 2024, a new organization of medical on-calls has been in place to offer a response outside the opening hours of medical offices (weekdays after 8 p.m., Saturdays from 12 p.m. to midnight, Sundays and public holidays). from 8 a.m. to midnight).
Vaccination against flu and Covid-19: there is still time!
While the emergency rooms are full this week with numerous admissions of elderly or fragile people affected by winter pathologies, ARS Occitanie recalls the interest of vaccination against flu and Covid-19.
“The vaccination rate against Covid-19 is too low in Occitanie. As of December 20, we recorded 32.1% vaccination among people over 80 years old, 30% among 75-79 year olds and for the 70-74 year olds, we were only at 23%”, underlines Charlotte Hammel, Haute-Garonne deputy director of the Regional Health Agency (ARS Occitanie). It also shows a lower number of flu vaccines than the number of vaccines sold last year. “There is always time to get vaccinated, especially since it is possible to get these two vaccines at the same time, it’s easy!”, concludes Charlotte Hammel.
Vaccination is possible with your doctor, with a nurse, a midwife or in a pharmacy.
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