An untenable situation. Within the second largest hospital in France, located in Toulouse, the fate of people dying on hospital grounds shock. Indeed, according to our colleagues at The Dispatchin an article published Sunday October 15, 2023, the deceased are stored in two refrigerated containers, placed in the parking lot from Rangueil hospital. This temporary installation was put in place to counter the “saturation” from the hospital morgue. “The Toulouse University Hospital is understaffed, there are too many bodies to keep. Based on this observation, management has installed a fixed refrigerated container and a mobile refrigerated truck,” explained to Paris Match Sylvain Beduz, CGT union delegate on the Rangueil site, Wednesday October 18, 2023. According to the union interviewed, the hospital’s cold rooms have a maximum capacity of seven bodies and are “largely overexploited”. And this temporary solution has lasted, according to union representatives, for two and a half years.
“When bodies are in a state of decomposition, liquid forms in the body bags”
But why is this case only coming out now? Indeed, the stretcher bearers, exhausted from having to bring these lifeless bodies into refrigerated containers, decided to lift the veil on their daily lives. “Some of them are complaining about the conditions in which they had to transport and store the corpses”, said Sylvain Beduz. “When bodies are in a state of decomposition, a liquid forms in the body bags […] it puts you in an unbearable psychological state.”, specified the CGT union delegate on the Rangueil site. Since this alert, the CGT has been keen to carry out its investigation and has launched a procedure“alert in the event of serious and imminent danger”the union further indicated Paris Match. “We hope that this procedure will trigger a field investigation to hold management accountable for its responsibilities,” explained Sylvain Beduz. Our colleagues questioned the hospital management, which indicated that this situation would only be temporary and that “only bodies not claimed by families are placed in these outdoor refrigerators”. “It is an exceptional situation, but in recent months, we have seen the number of so-called ‘indigent’ bodies increase, which has led us to set up refrigerated trucks to be able to accommodate these bodies of deceased patients,” explained to France 3Ornella Bruxelles-Terriat, director of CHU Rangueil, Tuesday October 17, 2023.