Hospitals across Europe are implementing lessons learned from a record-smashing heatwave that killed dozens, with the French government allocating €100 million ($114 million) for cooling systems and 30,000 air-conditioning units for health facilities.
At Paris-Saclay Hospital, emergency medics faced a critical shortage of ice needed to plunge patients into cold-water baths to rapidly lower their body temperatures. A fast-food restaurant provided ice, and staff purchased additional supplies from supermarkets. The hospital has now ordered its own ice-making machine, eagerly awaited for future heat events.
Heatwave Exposes Vulnerabilities in Hospital Infrastructure
"We thought we were ready. We were not actually," said Cedric Lussiez, director of the public hospital group. "The hospital was working on a 24 hours a day basis because we had to find new solutions in a very short delay. We already learned some lessons."
Dr. Nicolas Gonzales, head of the emergency department, described the surge of patients starting June 20 as "like a big mountain" lasting seven days. The first patient was a 50-year-old man found in a coma at home with a temperature of about 40 degrees Celsius. "Heat is a physical assault on the body," Gonzales said. "When the body can no longer adapt, you don't feel it coming, and the heart can stop beating."
Government Rushes Cooling Equipment to Hospitals
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced a €100-million investment for cooling systems and other renovations. The government is purchasing 30,000 air-conditioning units, with first deliveries expected "at the end of the week, beginning of next week." Lecornu stated, "It's an absolute priority for us that, if the heatwave returns, the hospital situation be a lot less strained."
The World Health Organization described the heatwave as "a dress rehearsal" for summers that "will be harder." The WHO noted, "Europe is warming at more than twice the global average. Heat waves are no longer one-off freak events. Every summer we fail to prepare for them is a summer we pay for in lives."
Hospitals Adapt to New Normal of Summer Heat Crises
Paris-Saclay Hospital, which is new and air-conditioned, fared better than three older hospitals in its group. Those facilities lacked adequate cooling, forcing staff to use electric fans and ice blocks to prevent medicines from spoiling. Student nurses were recruited to help keep patients hydrated. Temperatures reached 33 degrees Celsius on the top floor of a psychiatric unit.
Lussiez is now equipping that unit with cool rooms on each floor and planning to relocate a department for elderly patients to the newer hospital. "We'll be in a better situation next week than we were last week," he said.
The heatwave, which shifted eastward after battering France and the United Kingdom, caused a surge in heart attacks, dehydration, kidney malfunctions, and other heat-related emergencies across all age groups. Hospitals are now treating heatwave preparedness as an annual necessity, similar to winter flu season.
