ORSAY, France (AP) 鈥� Ice. Urgently and in large quantities.
At a Paris-region hospital, emergency medics needed it to plunge patients into cold-water baths to speedily bring down their temperatures so they wouldn’t join the from a . But lacking an ice-making machine, where to get it?
A fast-food restaurant helped out last week, saying the hospital could take its ice. Staff also bought ice from the supermarket. The Paris-Saclay Hospital has now ordered its own ice machine, eagerly awaited in the emergency department for a future attack of sizzling heat.
Whether that hits next week, as France’s weather service says it might, or in summer months ahead, medics and hospital administrators are acutely aware that the battle they’ve just endured will, because of , be followed by others. Just as they brace for the annual flu season, they know that fighting heat waves is becoming their .
So as they catch their breath from what the director of the public hospital described as a 鈥渉orrible” last week, he and his staff are also gearing up for the next round.
鈥淲e thought we were ready. We were not actually,鈥� said the director, C茅dric Lussiez.
鈥淭he hospital was working on a 24 hours a day basis because we had to find new solutions in a very short delay,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e already learned some lessons.鈥�
Hospitals are preparing for more inevitable heat waves
Efforts to plug some of the holes exposed by the heat wave that shifted eastward to after , the are accelerating on a national level, too.
When France was baking through its hottest days on record last week, French Prime Minister S茅bastien Lecornu announced a 100-million euro ($114-million) spend from this summer on cooling systems for hospitals and other work to keep wards functioning.
And at the latest in a series of heat-wave crisis meetings, he said Monday that the government is buying 30,000 air-conditioning units for health facilities, with the first deliveries expected 鈥渁t the end of the week, beginning of next week.鈥�
鈥淚t’s an absolute priority for us that, if the heat wave returns, the hospital situation be a lot less strained,” he said.
The on Tuesday described the heat wave as 鈥渁 dress rehearsal鈥� for summers that 鈥渨ill be harder.”
鈥淓urope is warming at more than twice the global average. Heat waves are no longer one-off freak events,鈥� it said. 鈥淓very summer we fail to prepare for them is a summer we pay for in lives.鈥�
Heart attacks and other heat-exposure emergencies surge
At the Paris-Saclay Hospital, patients suffering from heat exposure started arriving in a surge on June 20, said Dr. Nicolas Gonzales, head of the emergency department.
鈥淚t was like a big mountain,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was like that for seven days. So it was very intense.鈥�
鈥淚n winter, we know we鈥檒l have influenza epidemics and probably COVID as well. And now, in the summer, we鈥檙e going to have the climate crisis,” he said.
The first patient he treated in this heat wave was an emergency call-out, for a 50-year-old man in a coma at home and with a temperature of about 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). His family said he seemed fine one minute, but was unconscious the next, Gonzales said. He was rushed to the hospital for critical care.
Then came the flood: heart attacks, dehydration, kidney malfunctions and other heat-related problems, impacting all age groups, from children to older people living alone.
鈥淗eat is a physical assault. It is a physical assault on the body,” Gonzales said. 鈥淎nd when the body can no longer adapt 鈥� or, unfortunately, is no longer able to fight off that assault 鈥� you don鈥檛 feel it coming, and the heart can stop beating.”
Hospitals are urgently upgrading heat defenses
Paris-Saclay Hospital is new and has air-conditioning, but three older hospitals that are part of its group, which Lussiez heads, aren鈥檛 so well defended against the heat. It tested them arduously.
To prevent medicines from spoiling, they had to be cooled with a temporary solution of electric fans and blocks of ice. Student nurses were recruited to help with the work of keeping patients hydrated. The thermometer hit 33 C (91 F) on the top, most exposed floor of a psychiatric unit, Lussiez said.
He’s now urgently equipping that unit with a cool room for patients on each floor and organizing other renovation works and changes, including moving a department for elderly patients to the new hospital.
鈥淲e鈥檒l be in a better situation next week than we were last week,鈥� he said.
___
Associated Press journalist Alex Turnbull contributed.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
