Caught between the lack of staff and the bronchiolitis epidemic, the Ile-de-France pediatric services are under “strong tension”, said Thursday the director general of the regional health agency (ARS) of Île-de- France, Amelie Verdier. “We have strong, even very strong, tensions in the pediatric wards in the region,” she told AFP, explaining that bronchiolitis was added to the “very significant difficulties” linked to “ vacant jobs”.
The epidemic has resulted for two weeks in “a marked increase in emergency visits” among children under two years old, followed by more hospitalizations than last year. At the risk of saturation of hospitals: in pediatric intensive care, already 14 young patients had to be transferred outside Île-de-France – to the CHUs of Amiens and Rouen in particular.
A need to “relieve emergencies”
“The forecast situation for the days and weeks to come is not good”, warned Amélie Verdier, counting on the “solidarity of all” caregivers, in particular liberals, to “relieve emergencies”. Discussions are thus underway with certain on-call medical centers to extend their evening hours. The director of the ARS also appeals to the “responsibility of everyone”, in particular parents, to “protect themselves against winter epidemics”, by barrier gestures and vaccination against Covid “including for children”. She also pleads for “appropriate recourse to emergencies”, where “there are around 15% of children whose passage does not appear justified”. Even if it means calling 15 “in case of doubt”.
“The situation is serious”, she insisted, specifying that “the financial measures do not come under the regional level” but that the Minister of Health, François Braun, was “very attentive” to the proposals on the subject, including for “the shortest term”. Visiting a Parisian pediatric hospital last week, Mr. Braun had also undertaken to “implement all means to respond to these peaks of activity linked to bronchiolitis”.