Patients hospitalized in a garage for lack of space: the cry of alarm from Dr Prudhomme, emergency doctor

in collaboration with

Christophe Prudhomme (emergency doctor)

The story of Gérard Claudet, reported in several media, once again illustrates the bloodless situation to which French hospitals are reduced. He was, with four other patients, installed in the garage of Langres hospital, due to lack of space within the establishment, on October 27.

Emergencies in the Langres hospital parking lot

Gérard Claudet is likely to remember this visit to the hospital, at the end of October 2024. While he is on vacation in Haute-Marne, the man – who suffers from intestinal inflammation – goes to the hospital emergency room of Langres.

Twenty-four hours after his admission, he will be installed in the garage of the care establishment, with four other patients. A situation that seems usual for the caregivers who explain to him that they bring patients here,”when there is no more room“.

Nearly 5,000 hospital beds closed in 2023

The next day, the man asked to leave the premises, exhausted by the noise of the ventilation and the hospital conditions. “I am I don’t know where. In times of war, in a place where the sick are placed? I don’t really know where we are, but in any case not in a French hospital.” he declares angrily.

For Dr. Christophe Prudhomme, emergency physician and spokesperson for the Association of Emergency Physicians of France (AMUF), this example once again illustrates the deterioration of the French hospital system. “In 2023 again, there were 4,900 hospital beds closed. We do not understand the logic of the government, which is proposing ambulatory solutions but do not respond to the epidemiology of the population” says the doctor. “Today in France, we have a significant fringe of the aging population and affected by several pathologies at the same time, who must be hospitalized when their state of health requires it.

Inadequate healthcare provision that leaves room for the private sector

For the doctor, hospitals in small towns, like here in Langres, are less well equipped. “The public authorities do not meet the needs of these establishments. Result: the private sector is developing but it is not accessible to all” denounces the doctor.

A development which, according to this expert, marks the beginnings of increasingly unequal access to care. “We are gradually getting closer to a two-tiered medicine, with those able to afford certain treatments and others who give it up because of the fee overruns“.

The emergency physician pleads for a structural reform of the public hospital, with all that this requires from a financial point of view. “It is normal that some hospitals receive more support than others and it is the role of the State to guarantee access to care for all, without exception. he concludes.