After the Grand-Est on Thursday, the Hauts-de-France this Sunday.
Transfers of patients abroad, or to other French regions, are continuing in order to relieve hospitals congested by the second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic.
A patient, hospitalized in intensive care at the hospital of Valenciennes (North), was helicoptered this Sunday morning to the hospital in Münster (in the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany), has indicated the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Hauts-de-France.
A first for the region.
"Other transfers from Hauts-de-France to Germany could be made in the coming days", warns the ARS, in order to prevent the resuscitation services of hospitals in the region, which are experiencing "major tensions », Especially in terms of human resources, do not reach saturation point.
Thursday and Friday, several hospitals in the Grand-Est region had similarly transferred patients with Covid-19 to Germany to "anticipate any risk of saturation".
Moselle patients had been transferred to hospitals in the Land of Sarre, bordering the Moselle.
Families can benefit from support
This first transfer from Hauts-de-France, a region facing a "very active circulation of the virus", comes at a time when the intensive care units are not yet completely saturated but the forecasts for the evolution of the number of intensive care patients. in the region "remain worrying", notes the ARS.
Taking into account the effects of confinement, these forecasts "establish a need for the care of more than 600 Covid-19 resuscitating patients in mid-November - beyond the peak reached during the first wave with 511 Covid patients on April 5" .
The number of intensive care beds has already increased by more than 60% in the region, from 460 to 747. It is expected to exceed 800 in the coming days.
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These transfers are carried out with the agreement of the families of the patients, who will benefit if necessary "from support in terms of on-site transport, accommodation or translation", underlines the ARS.
"15 days, whatever happens, very difficult"
The ARS of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is considering 200 new transfers of patients "between the next two weeks", its director general, Jean-Yves Grall, told Franceinfo this Sunday.
“In one month, we have six times the number of hospitalized patients and we have greatly increased the number of intensive care patients, forcing us to adapt and anticipate in order to permanently maintain a mattress of beds available,” explained the health manager.
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While the epidemic continues to progress, with a regional incidence rate of over 860 per 100,000 inhabitants, the increase in hospitalizations has already led, since October 23, to the transfer of 61 patients from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. to other regions - Grand-Est, New Aquitaine, Pays de la Loire and Brittany - in order to avoid saturation.
A strategy which is therefore doomed to continue.
Jean-Yves Grall also judged that it was still "a little early to judge the effect of the re-containment": "In any event, the effect on hospitalizations will be ten days later. , since between the moment of contamination and hospitalization, this delay is observed.
So, for the moment, we have in front of us fifteen days, whatever happens, very difficult on the hospitalization ”, he concluded.