The Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) did not wait to resort to volunteering. From the start of the coronavirus epidemic in France, the AP-HP called on the voluntary work of caregivers, sometimes retired for example (1,500 doctors, nurses, etc., came to lend a hand) but also volunteers to support medical staff. . Today, 700 volunteers (excluding caregivers) work in hospitals in Paris and its suburbs.
But the leaders of the AP-HP are already thinking about the post-health crisis. Its managing director Martin Hirsch is therefore launching an appeal in the Parisian area - Today in France, the second since the crisis began. “We can think that we will enter a new phase where it will be useful to mobilize a large number of volunteers. I am talking about both the conditions of deconfinement, but also measures to identify and isolate carriers of viruses to break the transmission chains still active. This with strong and personalized support from these people, ”explains the former High Commissioner for Solidarity.
Support sampling teams, carry out neighborhood surveys, etc.
The missions of the volunteers will be diverse. They could be people who bring food to isolated confined people. Others will be able to make neighborhood inquiries, support sampling teams or implement rehousing operations ... Difficult to quantify the number of arms that will be available.
But Martin Hirsch already speaks of "several thousand" of mobilizable volunteers. Reflection is currently underway in hospitals in Paris on the articulation of these different missions. “I don't know what the authorities will decide in terms of the timetable. But these are things that we will test in the short term with people who carry the virus but do not require hospitalization, ”added the director general.
To recruit these volunteers, the AP-HP can use the already existing platform (https://volontaire.aphp.fr) where more than 18,000 people have already registered and, for some, will be easily mobilized.