THE TIMES OF INDIA

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2003

Report on France heat deaths blames officials

AP

PARIS: France's first official probe into why thousands of elderly people
died during a brutal summer heat wave put the blame partially on hospitals
for letting doctors desert their posts during August vacation.

The 47-page report released on Monday also said that health authorities were
too slow to realise how serious the situation was in emergency rooms.

"Mistake of anticipation, organisation and coordination, the response (to
the crisis) was not suitable," the report said. The government said earlier
that 11,435 people died in the heat that pounded France in early August,
when temperatures soared up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Some critics have also blamed the deaths on understaffing at retirement
homes and hospitals, August vacationers who left elderly relatives
unattended and government inaction.

Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei had ordered the report from a team of
specialists that included prominent doctors in gerontology, emergency
medicine and epidemiology. Mattei was to address the French parliament on
Thursday.

Michel Combier, president of the National General Practitioners Union, said
on Monday that it was unfair to blame doctors and other health care workers
for going on vacation at the same time as everyone else.

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