France heatwave overwhelms hospitals and forces Pride march delay
Emergency services at Paris's Hôpital européen Georges Pompidou – one of the capital's largest hospitals – were under "extremely serious" pressure after a week of exceptionally hot weather, its head of emergency medicine Philippe Juvin said on Friday.
"The corridors are full," Juvin said, describing mostly elderly patients but also people in their 50s and 60s suffering from severe heat-related illness. He said homeless people had also been admitted with body temperatures of 42C.
The hospital had 53 patients admitted for 20 beds normally available, with extra beds installed in disused rooms and patients waiting on trolleys in corridors. Twenty patients had still not been seen by 7am on Friday, he said.
France recorded its hottest day since measurements began in 1947 on Wednesday, with average temperatures throughout the day and night reaching 30C. Temperatures were forecast to fall on Friday, with a more noticeable drop over the weekend.
The country saw a fourfold increase in emergency room visits for heat-related reasons and a surge in cardiac arrests, authorities said.
"We are reaching a saturation point in hospital facilities," Paris police chief Patrice Faure said on Thursday. "The number of hospitalisations keeps increasing."
Hospitals overwhelmed as Europe heatwave shifts east
Events banned
Faced with the surge in patients, French authorities banned evening alcohol sales and public alcohol consumption in Paris from Friday and through the weekend.
Faure also ordered organisers of large-scale events planned for the weekend in Paris, including the Solidays festival, the Paris Pride March and the Charléty athletics meeting, to cancel them because the "exceptional heatwave" was "putting a strain on the emergency services and healthcare facilities".
Organisers of Saturday's Paris Pride March said they had postponed the event until September. The annual march usually draws tens of thousands of people onto the city's streets.
Organisers of Solidays also cancelled the festival, French broadcaster BFM reported.
Schools disrupted
More than €130 million has been allocated to pay for cooling systems and renovation work in French schools and nurseries to help them prepare for future heatwaves, state-owned utility EDF and several lenders said on Friday.
Most French schools are not designed to withstand extreme temperatures and do not have air conditioning.
The heatwave has forced thousands of schools to close, while those that remained open have struggled to teach pupils in sweltering classrooms or hold end-of-school exams for graduating high school students.
EDF said half the funding would pay for more than 100,000 pieces of equipment across more than 10,000 schools and nurseries by the end of September 2026.
The remaining money will be distributed in grants of 10,000 euros per site to help pay for cooling systems until the end of June 2027.
French teaching unions called for a strike on Thursday to protest "unacceptable working conditions".
Some parents have resorted to makeshift solutions to cool classrooms, using chalk-based coatings on windows or attaching emergency blankets to them.
France scrambles to respond, as June heatwave grips Europe
Nationwide mobilisation
The government declared a nationwide mobilisation of the healthcare system on Thursday amid fears the heatwave could lead to more deaths in the coming days as chronic illnesses worsen.
A three-year-old boy was found dead in a car in the suburbs of Paris, where temperatures topped 40C on Wednesday.
At least 55 people have drowned in France since the heatwave began in mid-June, the sports minister said on Friday, warning the death toll could rise further. Many were young people who died while swimming in unauthorised places to escape the heat.
Scientists said on Friday that human-caused climate change was "unequivocally" responsible for the intensity of the record-breaking heatwave, adding that it would have been "virtually impossible" for such exceptional temperatures to occur in June 50 years ago.
(with newswires)