Heatwave in France causes worrying rise in emergency hospital visits

France’s heatwave is putting emergency services under clear pressure, with the Health Ministry reporting a 15% to 20% rise in SAMU calls and public-health officials tracking a sharp increase in heat-related emergency visits and hospital admissions.

Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said hospitals are not overwhelmed for now, but some targeted rescheduling of operations is under way as the extreme temperatures continue across much of the country.

The concern is not just the volume of calls. Santé publique France said the heat is driving more cases of hyperthermia, dehydration and hyponatremia, the conditions that typically rise first when temperatures stay extreme for several days.

Emergency pressure rises

According to Santé publique France’s weekly heatwave bulletin, heat-related emergency indicators began rising on June 16.

Between June 18 and June 21, the bulletin recorded roughly 300 to 450 emergency-room visits per day for heat-related illness, along with 80 to 160 daily consultations from SOS Médecins.

The situation worsened sharply from June 22, when the bulletin said the indicator rose to more than 650 emergency visits in a day and 390 SOS Médecins consultations.

The same bulletin showed heat-related hospital admissions climbing to 160 to 220 per day.

About 60% of the patients admitted were aged 75 or older, underscoring the risk for older adults during extended heat exposure.

Hospitals under strain

To help free capacity, the French government activated Orsan Level 2, the framework used for exceptional health situations.

Le Monde reported that 58 mainland departments were under red alert and 31 under orange alert on June 24, covering nearly 44 million people.

That scale matters for hospitals because the pressure is no longer limited to one or two regions. It is affecting large parts of the country at the same time, even if the burden is heavier in some areas than others.

SAMU-Urgences de France said emergency-room visits were up about 10% in a survey of services, while Paris, Val-d'Oise and Rennes saw emergency-call increases of 40% to 50%.

Those local spikes suggest the strain is uneven, with some services carrying a much heavier load than the national average.

Who is being hit

The reporting points to the elderly as the most exposed group, especially people over 75.

That fits the clinical picture of heat-related illness, where dehydration and electrolyte problems can escalate quickly and lead to hospital admission if patients cannot cool down or rehydrate in time.

Doctors quoted in the reporting warned that the risk could worsen if the heatwave extends into the summer holiday period, when staffing shortages are more likely.

That is a practical concern for hospitals as much as a medical one. A hot spell that arrives when rosters are thinner can make it harder to absorb surges in emergency demand.

What officials are watching

For now, the official message is that the system is coping, even if it is strained.

The key question is whether the rise in calls and admissions stabilizes or keeps climbing if temperatures remain extreme.

Officials are also watching whether targeted rescheduling is enough, whether hospital admissions continue to rise, and whether the response has to broaden beyond the current Orsan Level 2 measures.

The episode is already drawing comparisons with the deadly 2003 French heatwave, the reference point that still shapes how public-health officials think about heat risk in hospitals.

AP and other outlets have confirmed the broader heatwave across Western Europe, but the most important new development in France is the impact on emergency care itself.

That makes the story less about temperatures alone and more about whether the health system can continue to absorb the surge without a wider disruption in care.