[nomadking]

They do things so much better across the EU, don't they?
Last year.

French hospitals are at breaking point due to a particularly virulent strain of flu that has spread across the country. Here's what you need to know about what's going on. So just how bad is the flu epidemic?
It’s bad enough for France’s Health Minister Marisol Touraine (see pic below) to call on hospitals across the country to delay non-urgent operations in order to free up hospital beds for patients suffering from flu.

Cold weather, a flu epidemic and overcrowding are among the causes that have plunged hospitals in several European countries into a care crisis.

Even high-tax Sweden is in the grip of a debate over staff shortages while flu is stretching Germany to breaking point and has triggered emergency measures in France to keep services going.

Karolinska University Hospital in Solna and Huddinge have been in crisis mode since Thursday morning due to overcrowding sparked by a sudden increase in patients seeking emergency care.

A recent report on Swedish television about the state of the country's healthcare system has shocked the population. For years hospitals have been suffering from nursing staff shortages, beds have been left unoccupied and patients face long waiting times for operations. And according to the report the problems have taken on life-threatening proportions in many areas.

2011 report.

On paper, Germany fares well in terms of ratios of doctors
and nurses to population, with densities above the EU
average. Despite this high coverage, recent estimates
suggest that approximately 17,000 full-time physicians were
lacking in 2010; this shortage will rise to 56,000 in 2020
and 166,000 in 2030.

2009

A staffing crisis is looming in Swiss hospitals, with 70 per cent reporting serious problems in recruiting medical and care personnel.