- Title: FRANCE: HEALTH SCANDAL AS DEATH TOLL RISES CAUSED BY THE HEATWAVE.
- Date: 29th August 2003
- Summary: (U4) PARIS, FRANCE (29 AUGUST 2003) (REUTERS) 1. CU/WS: EXTERIOR SAINT ANTOINE HOSPITAL; MLV: AMBULANCE GOING INSIDE HOSPITAL. 0.25 2. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (French) THE HEAD OF FRANCE'S EMERGENCY DOCTORS, DOCTOR PATRICK PELLOUX SAYING "I believe the problem, today, is to understand each one of the factors that have led us to such a humanitarian catastrophe. Why people like Dr Saint Marco, from Marseille, who works in public health and has been warning about the consequences of heatwaves for years, have not been heard; why for years and years we haven't listened to emergency services doctors who have been raising the flag about the poor conditions in which they have to work; why we have continued reducing the scope of the mission and the budgets of hospitals. It's all these questions that count now. The solution is not about finding one person to hold him responsible. France must lose the habit of cutting heads to solve problems." 1.05 3. CU: ENTRANCE TO HOSPITAL SHOWING NOTICE BOARD. 1.11 4. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (French) PATRICK PELLOUX SAYING "The debate must necessarily be political, because it concerns the life of the nation. It we turn it into electoralist politics, then we will fail to achieve results and it will all be totally sterile. However, if we establish a debate with those elected by the people in order to create a better system based on a far more humanitarian and far more solidarious society, then we will have a truly healthy debate. If we do it just to ridicule politics again and turn it into an issue of left against right, we will end up by understanding why people do not want to vote any more." 1.45 (U4) PARIS, FRANCE (RECENT) (REUTERS) 5. VARIOUS: EMERGENCY AREA IN SAINT ANTOINE HOSPITAL. WITH PEOPLE ON HOSPITAL TROLLEYSBEING TREATED. (5 SHOTS) 2.37 6. VARIOUS: EXTERIOR OF PARIS MORGUE (MEDICAL LEGAL INSTITUTE); EXTERIOR OF FUNERAL HOUSE; TEMPORARY EMERGENCY MORGUE. (3 SHOTS) 2.46 7. MV: EXTERIOR OF PARIS MORGUE (MEDICAL LEGAL INSTITUTE) 2.46 8. GV/HAS: EXTERIOR OF FUNERAL HOUSE AND CEMETARY. 2.50 9. VARIOUS: TEMPORARY EMERGENCY MORGUE. (2 SHOTS) 3.05 10. SLV/HAS: CEMETERY. 3.09 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th September 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA5IKJIVU3TLLZMO3O4Z66SGRVY
- Story Text: The head of France's emergency doctors has said the
country must look at the causes the humanitarian catastrophe
during the heatwave.
France said on Friday (August 29, 2003) it had recorded
11,435 extra deaths during the heatwave in the first two
weeks of August when temperatures soared over 40 degrees
Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), above previous estimates. Giving
preliminary figures, the Health Ministry said the extra
deaths related to the period between August 1-15.
The ministry said the latest figures were in line with
those being compiled by a special government commission set
up in response to public anxiety over the death toll in a
country whose health service is vaunted as a world beater.
Doctor Patrick Pelloux, head of France's emergency
doctors and the first to trigger the alert about the
increased number of deaths caused by the heatwave in early
August, told Reuters Television there are lots of questions
that still need answers.
"I believe the problem, today, is to understand each
one of the factors that have led us to such a humanitarian
catastrophe. Why people like Dr Saint Marco, from
Marseille, who works in public health and has been warning
about the consequences of heatwaves for years, have not
been heard; why for years and years we haven't listened to
emergency services doctors who have been raising the flag
about the poor conditions in which they have to work,"
Pelloux said.
Pelloux was adamant about the need to stop looking for
scapegoats and the urgency of addressing the real issues.
"The debate must necessarily be political, because it
concerns the life of the nation. It we turn it into
electoralist politics, then we will fail to achieve results
and it will all be totally sterile. However, if we
establish a debate with those elected by the people in
order to create a better system based on a far more
humanitarian and far more solidarious society, then we will
have a truly healthy debate," he said.
The government was criticised for failing to react fast
enough to the crisis, during which hospitals and were
swamped with people, especially the elderly, suffering from
dehydration and hyperthermia. The country's top health
official has resigned but Health Minister Jean-Francois
Mattei has so far refused to step down.
Adding to the various problems caused by the heatwave,
hundreds of bodies still remain unclaimed at the morgues
and many are being buried by the authorities without any
relative or friend to mourn them.
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