Report: 85-year-old spends more than six days on stretcher at Orléans University Hospital

Orléans – 07/08/2026: According to a report published by Franceinfo on Friday, an 85-year-old woman spent more than six days on a stretcher in the emergency department at Orléans University Hospital. The patient described her stay as extremely distressing. The broadcaster places the case in the context of the tense situation at the public hospital, which is said to be facing a shortage of beds and a heavy workload for staff.

So far, the specific course of events has mainly been documented through the report and the account given by the woman concerned. No publicly accessible statement from Orléans University Hospital regarding this individual case was available on Friday. It is therefore not possible to independently confirm either the medical reasons for the long stay or the precise timing of her subsequent admission to a ward. No further verified information is known about the conditions during the six days either.

The university hospital’s emergency department had already been under considerable strain in the preceding weeks. On 26 June, the hospital activated an internal crisis plan because of an exceptional heatwave. The hospital cited a large influx of patients and increasing pressure on the Loiret department’s medical dispatch centre as reasons.

The crisis plan provided for scheduled medical and surgical procedures to be postponed if necessary, additional staff to be mobilised, and inpatient admissions to be accelerated. According to the hospital, many people required medical assistance during the heatwave because of dehydration, circulatory problems and other heat-related complaints. The available information does not indicate whether this exceptional strain remained unchanged in early August. A direct connection to the case of the 85-year-old has therefore not been established.

According to its own figures, the adult emergency department at Orléans University Hospital treats an average of 150 to 160 patients per day. The hospital also operates an acute geriatric unit with 30 beds for older people. According to the hospital, daily coordination between the geriatric unit and the emergency department is intended to keep the time older patients spend in the emergency department as short as possible. It is unknown whether a place in this or another suitable unit was available during the reported period.

Long stays in French emergency departments often affect older people and those requiring particularly intensive care more severely. A study published in June by the state statistics office Drees found that ten percent of patients wait more than two and a half hours before their care begins. The survey also records age and waiting times on a stretcher.

The woman’s stay in Orléans is therefore documented as an exceptionally long individual case, rather than as the hospital’s average waiting time. According to Franceinfo’s account, however, it lasted significantly longer than the usual short-term treatment in an emergency department.