A report by France's prisons watchdog condemns patient care that fails to ensure their "dignity" or "privacy", amid staff and bed shortages in psychiatry.
Patients forced to lie directly on the floor, others kept for several days on stretchers, or even detained arbitrarily, in conditions that guarantee neither their "dignity" nor their "privacy". In a report published on Thursday, the office of the General Controller of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL), headed by Dominique Simonnot, condemns "serious failings" in the handling of psychiatric emergencies at several hospitals in the Paris region.
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In early July, its teams visited several facilities in Île-de-France, including Cochin, Robert-Debré, Necker and La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospitals, as well as Sainte-Anne in Paris, Delafontaine in Saint-Denis and Henri-Mondor in Créteil.
They describe care conditions that are incompatible with respect for patients’ "fundamental rights" in departments struggling with staff shortages, a lack of resources and too few psychiatric beds.
Several days of waiting
In the first half of 2026, 3,957 patients requiring psychiatric care faced prolonged waits in A&E departments in Île-de-France, a rise of 31.8% compared with 2025.
The average waiting time exceeded 39 hours in the second quarter, up from 29 hours at the start of 2025. In some hospitals, patients can remain in A&E for up to around ten days while waiting for a bed.
At Sainte-Anne, 60% of patients seen in psychiatric emergency services wait for "more than 13 hours" and "20% for more than 48 hours".
The report warns of the consequences of these delays, which can lead to "patients giving up on treatment" and "breakdowns in continuity of care", and demands the "very rapid" introduction of "organisational, infrastructure, capacity and human-resources solutions".
Practices outside the legal framework
Another worrying finding is that some patients who are meant to be admitted without consent are being held "arbitrarily", and seclusion or restraint measures are also being used "without any legal framework".
The report calls for hospitals to establish "a facility-wide policy on alternatives" to these practices and to provide better training for staff.
The CGLPL is also concerned about the situation of children and adolescents. Because of a shortage of child psychiatrists and a lack of suitable places, many minors are admitted to wards that also treat adults.
The body is calling for a specific "legal status" for these young patients, as well as a "plan to rehabilitate child and adolescent psychiatry".
