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Video length: 2 min
In the Brest emergency room, the waiting time for patients to be treated is 23 hours, according to the unions. Across France, emergency rooms are saturated.
In mid-July, Benoît Corre took his father to the emergency room for a stroke. The 67-year-old was seen by a nurse, given a CT scan and then waited 18 hours on a stretcher. “There aren’t enough of them”he laments. This case is not isolated. In the emergency room of Brest (Finistère), the unions have erected a “wall of shame”. He lists a hundred patients over 75 years old left on stretchers for hours.
Before being taken care of, patients would wait an average of 23 hours according to the unions, 8 hours and 20 minutes according to management. Across France, emergency rooms are saturated. Some must close partially, like the one in Carpentras (Vaucluse), which closes from 1:30 p.m. every day for three months. In the afternoon, only vital emergencies are treated, after regulation. Patients must call 15 to be admitted to the emergency room if necessary.