It was the Force Ouvrière union which raised the alarm. Last week, a patient died while in the emergency queue at Nantes University Hospital. Since then, the debate has been lively as the unions see in this tragedy a lack of resources on the part of the hospital in the face of peak winter attendance. 20 minutes make the point.
What happened ?
On January 2, a patient who was in the emergency room of the Nantes University Hospital died on a stretcher, confirms the management of the establishment without giving details of his identity. According to the newspaper West Francethis is an 86-year-old woman, who arrived for Covid and who presented severe comorbidities (several chronic illnesses).
But for its part, the CHU assures that this lady did not require priority care. She had been “assessed upon arrival by a reception and orientation nurse” and then presented an “absence of acute pain”, an “absence of damage to vital organs and an “absence of potential seriousness criteria”. requiring a rapid diagnosis,” assures management.
Why did this woman die?
Support too slow? Lack of care? The CHU refutes this scenario and gives its version of the facts. “The patient presented a cardio-respiratory arrest in front of a medical care team who were able to immediately start resuscitation. The patient then regained cardiac activity, we can read in the management press release. Given the patient’s medical history, the question arose about the level of care to be provided to her. » In agreement with the family, the medical teams then decided to interrupt “invasive care” to move on to “comfort care”. The death occurred “a few hours later”.
According to Force Ouvrière, this woman “would probably have died whatever the circumstances”. “But this patient should have just gone to the emergency room, we should have been able to find her a bed, where she could have died with more dignity,” Jérémy Beurel, FO deputy general secretary of the Nantes University Hospital, told AFP.
Is overcrowding in emergency rooms to blame?
Because the unions see in this tragedy a consequence of a saturation of services, with “on average 140 patients per day” in the emergency room, denounces Force Ouvrière, which continues: “If the number of 230 patients in the emergency room was sometimes reached in an exceptional manner , a few years ago, it is becoming the norm today without adequate means, due to a lack of a disastrous health policy at all levels. »
The University Hospital recalls that measures have been taken, including “the opening of a 12-bed seasonal tension unit”, at the height of winter illnesses. Insufficient for the CGT: “These situations of congested emergency rooms, corridors full of patients on stretchers, endless queues, dehumanization of user handling cannot be trivialized and become the daily life of patients and caregivers », Regrets Olivier Terrien, CGT delegate. Member of the supervisory board of the Nantes University Hospital, he asked management this Thursday to provide him with “explanations on the circumstances of this death”.