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World
Nearly ten weeks after the Strait of Hormuz closure, French hospitals risk running out of plastic medical supplies, with officials warning of a crisis worse than COVID-19.
Nearly ten weeks after navigation halted in the Strait of Hormuz, French hospitals and pharmacies face an imminent shortage of plastic medical supplies — from syringes and catheters to surgical masks and bags — that underpins modern medicine. The crisis, which few imagined could reach operating rooms thousands of kilometers from Paris, is now taking shape in cities like Lyon and Marseille.
The petrochemical link is direct: plastic, the backbone of vast quantities of medical equipment, is derived from oil, as reported by Le Parisien. When oil tankers stopped crossing the strait, the flow of petrochemicals needed to produce raw materials for the medical industry also stopped.
Prices tell a worrying story. The cost of polypropylene — a key component in dozens of healthcare products — has doubled since the US-Israeli war on Iran began, jumping from €1,200 to over €2,400 per ton. Raw plastic granule prices have risen by more than 30%.
Joseph Taïeb, secretary general of the plastics alliance Plastalliance, which represents the European plastics industry including 3,000 factories and 120,000 workers in France alone, said the actual level of strategic stockpiles for numerous products — masks, gloves, catheters, medical gowns, syringes, tubes, probes, sterilization containers, and even blood transfusion bags — is completely unknown.
"These prices are the last stage before the collapse in supply. And when that collapse comes, it could be much worse than what we experienced during the COVID pandemic," Taïeb said.
A former doctor who once headed a department at a Paris clinic revealed the structural weakness: "Every pharmacy — whether among the 20,000 open to the public or those in hospitals and clinics — relies on its own stock. Depending on size, activity, and location, that stock may last only a few days to a few weeks. No more."
While the French government remains tight-lipped, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) has publicly voiced concerns about imminent shortages and sharply rising costs for medicines and medical equipment.
French lawmakers are now moving from the shadows into official channels. Senator Vincent Louault (Horizons movement) sent a written question on April 30 to Health Minister Stéphanie Rist, pointing to "grave concerns" over the supply of medical devices and plastic protective equipment to the healthcare system.
In the National Assembly, deputy Anne-Laure Blin submitted an official letter titled "Risk of healthcare paralysis: what sovereignty over medical devices?" published in the official journal on May 5. Deputy Philippe Juvin, general rapporteur for the assembly's budget and an anesthesiologist, is preparing a similar letter asking the minister about alternatives should shortages of high-use hospital plastics emerge, according to Le Parisien.
The picture darkens further regarding the state's strategic reserves. During hearings in January before a section of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), employees of the French public health agency (SPF) admitted they could not provide accurate data — due to software malfunctions.
Gilles Bonnefond, former head of the pharmacists' union and a CESE member, commented: "There is real fog at the worst possible time. And that is precisely the danger."
The Health Ministry announced its intention to regain control of managing this file next year, but as specialists describe it: "Between now and next year, the void is widening."
Bonnefond's practical conclusion, should the conflict drag on and the crisis deepen, is "cancellation of surgical operations" — the nightmare French hospitals experienced at the peak of COVID-19, when thousands of procedures were canceled and healthcare fell to unprecedented levels.
François Jacq, CEO of the Air Liquide group, told shareholders at the company's general assembly on May 5: "We are beginning to see impacts on supply chains, with potential shortages of certain vital materials, particularly plastic."
The Health Ministry chose not to comment when contacted by the newspaper.
