This is the obsession of parents since the start of the school year: the epidemic of bronchiolitis. The Minister of Health had to face the facts: pediatric emergencies are overwhelmed and unable to deal with the influx of patients. Nearly 7,000 children admitted last week, an increase of 7%. The precocity and the strength of this wave prevent the services from welcoming them in good conditions.
It is even the anguish of Vanessa, mother of two young children in Île-de-France, a particularly affected department, who is afraid of not being able to be welcomed with her children. “It’s something that terrifies me enough,” she says at the microphone of Europe 1.
“When I see the overloaded emergencies, I say to myself, as long as I manage to manage my son”
It is a disease with very spectacular symptoms which affects a third of babies under two years of age. “He was six months old when he had bronchiolitis for the first time. Wheezing, slightly blue lips. Today, when I see the overloaded emergencies as they are, I tell myself that I can manage my son and my daughter. Provided that, if they ever catch this filthy bronchiolitis, it is not full-bodied as they could have had it when they were between zero and one year old, “continues Vanessa who has decided to take the lead if these children were getting sick. “I have my in-laws who live in Rouen so if we needed to leave urgently, I know that I could be welcomed into my family in Normandy.”
A situation that is not tenable for Véronique Hentgen, pediatrician in a service in the Paris region. “We have a lot of hospitalized children, we have no hospitalization places in our own department, so we send children home who deserve hospitalization,” she laments.
Hours of waiting before being hospitalized
“There is a wait in the emergency room. A child can wait 7, 8, 9, 10 hours for his hospital bed in another department”, says Véronique. “But transferring an infant home is necessarily degraded care. Can the parents accompany them? What do we do with the siblings? It’s not easy to transfer a child .” This crisis in the healthcare system is also reflected in a lack of general practitioners. The Senate has validated the mandatory one-year internship for future practitioners. This fourth year will have to be carried out in priority in the medical deserts.
What is the white plan launched by the government?
To deal with this epidemic of bronchiolitis, the government launched the white plan which makes it possible to mobilize personnel and all the material means that a hospital needs to respond to an exceptional influx of patients. This allows facility managers to cancel carers’ planned vacations to keep them on schedule, to remind staff on rest days.
The organization and supply of care are turned upside down by these white plans since the follow-up of patients who consult at the hospital can be interrupted. Surgeries considered non-urgent are also postponed to allow caregivers to focus. Today on the outbreak of bronchiolitis, city doctors are also called upon and may be called upon to perform call duty in the city in the evening or on weekends. If all these means are not enough, the white plan makes it possible to mobilize the health reserve.