• While the bronchiolitis epidemic is just beginning in the region, pediatric emergencies in Toulouse are already overactive.

  • Pr. Isabelle Claudet calls on parents to consult their general practitioner during the day in first intention if it is not an emergency.

  • This overactivity is partly explained by a lack of hospital pediatricians in the region.

On average, the waiting time in the pediatric emergency room of Purpan, in Toulouse, is three to four hours.

But on weekends, it can sometimes go up to eight hours.

“We have extremely intense activity in pediatric emergencies, completely abnormal for the period.

We have between 200 and 250 visits per day, where we should have on average between 140 and 150 per day, ”says Professor Isabelle Claudet, head of the child center at the Pink City University Hospital.

And unlike other regions of France, the bronchiolitis epidemic has only just begun, with 10 to 12 infants seen every day.

A situation that is found almost everywhere in France, at the origin of a forum signed by 4,000 pediatric caregivers published at the end of last week.

After two years of health crisis, the tensions are therefore more palpable than ever and the release, on Sunday, of an envelope of 150 million euros by the ministry to meet the "urgent needs of hospitals" seems insufficient in the eyes of a large number of professionals.


If this year, the CHU of Toulouse was able to anticipate the recruitment of pediatric nurses to face the critical period of autumn and winter, other structural problems are at the origin of the difficulties encountered in recent months.

“There are factors common to all our services, it is the demographic difficulties of liberal medicine which leads to a lot of postponements for us.

There is also a societal phenomenon, parents need to be reassured quickly and know that in our units if there is a need to take samples or x-rays, it is available immediately on the same site”, believes Isabelle Claudet who invites parents to consult their doctors during the day when it is not an emergency.

Lack of pediatricians

In addition to these factors, which are found almost everywhere in France, there is also that specific to the region.

“We have pediatric units in certain general hospitals which close for lack of pediatricians and we have reorientations as a result”, continues the head of pediatric emergencies.

Due to lack of staff, some pediatric emergency services have been forced to close, such as those in Auch this summer.

And this is what could happen soon for those of Carcassonne.

According to a recent report by the High Council for Public Health, Occitania is indeed one of the regions with one of the lowest rates of salaried pediatricians in the hospital sector.

Four years ago, of the 656 specialist doctors in the region, 43% worked in a hospital when there were 60.5 in the Center-Val-de-Loire.

This study also pointed out that "the density of pediatric intensive care beds is much higher in Normandy compared to the Occitania region for a pediatric population almost half the size".



In Toulouse, 24 additional hospital beds have already opened, much earlier than usual.

Service officials still have the capacity to open twelve more to deal with the next waves of bronchiolitis and winter viruses.

And they should get there soon.

"In mid-November, it will sting," predicts Isabelle Claudet.

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