Heatwave pushes Île-de-France hospitals into crisis: Plan blanc activated, calls to SAMU up 80%
All hospitals in the Paris region triggered the Plan blanc emergency system on Friday after a prolonged heatwave drove SAMU emergency calls up 80% and emergency visits to nearly 3,000 per day, 36% above normal. The government raised its national Orsan alert to Level 3.
Emergency plans triggered
Facing an exceptional strain on hospitals across the Île-de-France, the regional health agency (ARS) activated the Plan blanc for all health establishments on Friday 26 June. The move, announced by ARS director general Denis Robin, allows hospitals to cancel non-urgent operations, mobilise reserve health workers, and call in staff on leave to handle the surge. It complements the Level 3 activation of the national Orsan plan, which the government decreed on Thursday 25 June as temperatures peaked.
We are in the middle of a health crisis. This is an exceptional and extreme heatwave event.
The ARS described the care system as "under tension" across much of France, with SAMU call centres reporting activity up 61% from the previous week and 75% compared with the same period in 2025.
Strain on hospitals
Paris public hospitals (AP-HP) reported nearly 3,000 emergency visits in the 24 hours to Friday evening, a 36% increase on a normal day. The SAMU centres in Paris and the inner suburbs – Paris, Garches, Bobigny, Créteil – handled nearly 80% more calls than in the same week a year ago, with calls peaking at 5,000 on Wednesday 25 June, compared with a usual 3,000 per day. Director general Nicolas Revel told France Inter that the emergency services were "saturated" rather than "overwhelmed", but warned the high plateau would last several more days.
Just as the heatwave does not start striking immediately, its effects persist. We expect saturation until Monday or Tuesday.
- Red heatwave alert issued for Île-de-France
- Government activates Level 3 of Orsan emergency plan
- SAMU calls in Paris region peak at 5,000, up 80% from normal
- Plan blanc activated in all Île-de-France hospitals
- Prefect of Orne bans outdoor events until 29 June
- Woman dies of heat stroke in Clermont (Oise); child reported brain-dead in Marseille
- Red alert lifted but hospitals brace for continued strain into next week
Over-75s account for a larger share of admissions, with more than 50% of them requiring hospitalisation after an emergency visit, compared with a 20% hospitalisation rate overall. Calls for cardiac arrests have doubled since the hot spell began.
Local impacts and measures
Beyond the capital, the strain has rippled across departments. In the Oise, the hospital in Clermont reported a 20% rise in patients, with no beds available on Friday evening. That night, a 60-year-old woman died of heat stroke after a long drive in an un-air-conditioned car. In the Orne department, the prefect Hervé Tourmente banned outdoor sports and cultural events and kept a ban on public alcohol consumption in place until Monday 29 June at 8 a.m., after SAMU interventions rose 57% and fire service call-outs doubled.
- Normal daily calls
- 3000 calls
- Peak on 25 June
- 5000 calls
In Colmar (Haut-Rhin), firefighters multiplied interventions as temperatures hit 40 °C. An article by Franceinfo also mentions a child declared brain-dead in Marseille, though no further details were provided in the available reports.
Forecast and historical comparison
Hospital managers anticipate the wave of admissions will continue even as temperatures fall, because heat-related illness often presents with a lag. Revel estimated the current episode's death toll would exceed the 5,700 excess deaths attributed to heat in 2025 but would stay below the catastrophic 15,000 fatalities of the 2003 canicule.
Since 2003, we know better how to manage patients who arrive. Before, we sent them to intensive care and many died; now we cool them down.
Météo-France lifted the red heat alert for Île-de-France on Saturday 27 June, but the AP-HP says it is still bracing for a further rise in emergency visits and hospital admissions. The AP-HP has already deployed 2,950 mobile air-conditioning units – 850 acquired last year and 600 more ordered – with longer-term structural works expected to take several years.
