France hospitals scramble to prepare for the next deadly heatwave

Paris-Saclay Hospital outside Paris has ordered its own ice-making machine after staff were forced to improvise with a nearby fast-food restaurant and supermarket-bought ice to cool heatstroke patients in cold-water baths. Hospital director Cédric Lussiez said, “We thought we were ready. We were not actually,” and said the ward had been working “on a 24 hours a day basis” as clinicians scrambled for new solutions.

At Paris-Saclay, the missing ice machine turned into a frontline problem as emergency medics tried to stabilize patients during the surge. The hospital’s new purchase is meant for the next extreme-temperature spike, which France’s weather service says could arrive as soon as next week.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced a 100-million-euro spend on cooling systems for hospitals and other work to keep wards functioning, and said France is buying 30,000 air-conditioning units for health facilities. First deliveries are expected by the end of the week or the beginning of next week.

WHO Europe called the recent heatwave a “dress rehearsal” for summers that “will be harder,” and said more than half of European countries still do not have a comprehensive heat-health action plan. Hans Henri Kluge, WHO Europe’s top official, said Europe is warming at more than twice the global average and heatwaves are no longer freak events. He said heat-related deaths in the European Region in 2023 would have been around 80% higher without existing adaptation measures, and that for people aged 80 and above, deaths could have been twice as high.

Around 60% of hospital admissions after emergency visits during this heatwave involved people aged 75 and older, WHO said. France has estimated about 1,000 excess deaths during the heat wave, adding to dozens of deaths reported across Europe.