Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (456875)	9/11/2003 8:45:08 AM
From: jim-thompson	Respond to of 769667

I sure hope we never get a national health plan like the French. Course it did help the country by disposing of almost 15,000 elderly who no longer receive medical care or social security checks. French Health Minister Defends Steps Taken Over Heat Wave PARIS (AP)--France's embattled health minister on Thursday defended his response to a heat wave that killed more than 11,400 people, telling lawmakers he never considered resigning. Jean-Francois Mattei acknowledged that he agreed with a recommendation in a report he commissioned that a special health alert system should be established to prevent another disaster. But he told members of a National Assembly inquiry into the heat wave that allegations the government was laggard in its response to the crisis in August were off the mark. "The chronology of events shows that measures were taken quickly," Mattei said. The French government has been accused of a slow reaction to the punishing heat wave, which had an official death toll of 11,435. The country's largest undertaker, however, has estimated a final toll of 15,000. The government-ordered report on the disaster, released on Monday, blamed the staggering death toll on hospital understaffing, bureaucratic disarray and a faulty care system for the elderly. The study showed ministries and agencies failed to communicate with each other or coordinate measures, while delays in gauging the severity of the heat wave hindered quick action. Despite the criticism, Mattei said he had no plans to step down. "I've never thought of resigning," he declared. "On the contrary, I feel a duty to act because...I know now what we have to do to stop it from happening again." Mattei said the crucial fault in the health system was lack of a method of quickly compiling data such as the number of deaths and issuing an immediate alert when it was clear there was a crisis. In the absence of such a system, he said health officials acted without the appropriate sense of urgency. "Acting on the information that was communicated to us, the Health Ministry and, more widely, the French system took the measures most appropriate to the circumstances," he said. On Wednesday, Mattei said had ordered his ministry to come up with a plan to quickly notify doctors and authorities about potentially deadly temperatures. Officials will also draw up a blueprint on how to prevent and handle such health crises. The plans should be tested before next summer, Mattei said, without giving more details. Among other measures, Mattei asked the nation's Health Watch Institute to publish a daily health alert bulletin to keep officials and doctors informed of potential dangers. The minister also asked that French law be changed to ensure that the institute, generally charged with surveying infectious diseases, also keep watch for abnormal temperatures that could threaten public health. The August heat baked many parts of Europe, but no other country reported deaths on the scale of France. Experts said the heat's fallout was worse in France because temperatures didn't drop at night. People who suffered in the daytime had no respite when the sun set.