In response to a surge of flu cases across France, hospitals have activated the emergency “White Plan”.
That is a protocol allowing the postponement of non-urgent surgeries, the expansion of emergency hospital capacity and the recall of staff from leave.
France’s Health Minister Catherine Vautrin announced on January 10 that, due to an influx of patients, “nearly 100 hospitals” had already activated the system by the evening of January 9.
Vautrin urged the French to adhere to barrier measures to curb the virus’ spread by wearing face masks when in contact with an infected individual and urged people to get vaccinated.
“When we look at emergency room attendances and, in particular, cases of complications, more than 70 per cent are people who have not been vaccinated and who are eligible for vaccination,” she said.
Only 10.3 million of the 17.3 million people identified by the Ministry of Health have been vaccinated against flu since the autumn, the ministry said.
France, including Corsica, was officially declared to be in the middle of a flu epidemic just before Christmas, slightly earlier than in past years.
In a bulletin released on January 8, Santé Publique France reported that influenza cases continued to rise at “exceptionally high-intensity levels in hospitals”.
For some, the White Plan designed to increase hospital capacity and speed access to treatment across France was activated too late.
The Workers’ Union (Force Ouvrière) at Nantes University Hospital has questioned “the timing” and demanded “explanations as to why it was not activated on 31 December, when the situation required it”.
Waiting times at the hospital’s emergency department were reported to have reached “more than 20 hours and even 30 hours for some patients”, according to the union.
The situation then deteriorated, with “two patients dying after waiting more than 20 hours”, the union told University Hospital management.
The French Emergency Medicine Society has revealed that 22 per cent of all emergency-room visits for flu-like illnesses had resulted in hospital admissions, with the elderly (those over 65 years old) seeing the highest hospitalisation rate at 54 per cent.
The rate was 11 per cent for those aged 15-64, 9 per cent for children under 5 and 6 per cent for those aged 5-14.
France is not alone in this epidemic.
In Belgium, federal health minister Frank Vandenbroucke raised the flu alert level from yellow to orange on January 9.
In Walloonia, the regional health minister Yves Coppieters has warned of a major wave of respiratory infections, especially influenza, impacting children, the elderly and the vulnerable in the country.
In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) said on January 7 staff had experienced the busiest year on record for A&E and ambulance services at the end of last year, as flu continued to pile pressure on hospitals into 2025.
There was an average of 5,408 patients a day in hospital with flu over the week starting January 1, including 256 in critical care – 3.5 times higher than the same week in 2024.
A number of hospital trusts have now declared “critical incidents”, citing exceptional demand caused by the colder weather and respiratory viruses, the NHS said.
