Health Minister Stéphanie Rist reported on Thursday evening a "tension in all emergency services" linked to winter epidemics, snow and the strike of private doctors, which has intensified according to figures from the Health Insurance.
"There is tension in all emergency services" across the country, said Stéphanie Rist during a visit to the emergency department of Saint-Antoine Hospital in Paris.
"We can requisition if needed," she added, referring to a "complicated time with the flu epidemic, the snowfall, and the doctors' strike which is causing an increase in activity in all emergency services."
Regarding the strike by general practitioners which began on Monday and is expected to escalate and last ten days, activity was down by 19% among general practitioners on Tuesday compared to usual activity, and that of specialists by 12%, according to data from the Health Insurance, it indicated, reporting "significant figures".
They correspond to the volume of electronic health insurance claim forms transmitted electronically by doctors, compared to the same Tuesday last year.
On Monday, activity had decreased less: 15% among general practitioners, and 6% among specialists, according to figures previously given by the minister.
For the emergency department at Saint-Antoine Hospital, which is experiencing a peak in patient numbers, "it was +40% of activity yesterday, which was absorbed," with patients who "were properly taken care of in the department," said Stéphanie Rist.
Between midnight Tuesday and midnight Wednesday, the department recorded 240 patient visits, compared to an average of 180 usually. The night from Tuesday to Wednesday was particularly difficult, the head of the department, Pierre-Alexis Raynal, and an emergency physician told the minister.
Many emergency services and the Samu-SAS (Services d'accès aux soins, which answer calls to 15) have been overwhelmed in recent days by an intense peak in demand, "unprecedented" since the Covid-19 pandemic according to several emergency physicians.
Several hospitals have activated their emergency plans (a system allowing, in particular, the recall of caregivers on leave, or the rescheduling of non-urgent care), such as the Toulouse University Hospital, which said in its statement on Thursday that it wanted to "anticipate and manage" the postponement of activity linked to the strike by clinic practitioners.
English 
French