French surgeons strike despite heat wave

PARIS – Some surgeons and specialists in France’s private clinics went on strike Monday, ignoring pleas from the health minister and emergency room doctors worried about treating patients during a deadly heat wave.

The strike raised fears that patients from private clinics would overwhelm doctors at public hospitals already busy treating victims of heat-related illnesses. Health Minister Xavier Bertrand asked medical students and retired doctors to back up paramedics and emergency room physicians in some areas.

About 30 people have died from the scorching heat wave over the last 10 days, health authorities said. Temperatures have been in the high 90s across much of France, reaching the low 100s in some southern areas.

The hot weather has revived memories of the summer of 2003, when 15,000 people in France died from the heat.

Patrick Pelloux, president of an association of emergency room physicians, said he was baffled by the surgeons’ decision to strike. “There comes a point when, faced with the risks of a heat wave, there is an honorable side to carrying out one’s mission,” he told France-2 television.

To maintain bare-bones staffing levels, local officials were authorized to requisition doctors, forcing them back to work.