Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has learned the lessons from the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic in France.
In the context of a second wave underway in the territory, the NGO on Tuesday launched a call to constitute 5 to 10 mobile medical intervention teams in retirement homes facing the epidemic.
This "emergency" action, already implemented on a small scale during the first wave of the epidemic, aims to "support the most vulnerable structures" and "strengthen medical care", said the NGO. in a press release.
“There is a real need for reinforcements, we would like to develop our structures throughout France, some establishments are in critical situations.
It is a call for participation but also a form of remobilization for nursing homes ”confides Olivia Gayraud, coordinator of the MSF nursing home support project, contacted by Le Parisien.
“For the past few weeks, we have been recruiting doctors and nurses, we are starting to have our teams in Île-de-France, but not yet in sufficient quantities,” explains the project manager.
During the first wave, the NGO intervened with around thirty nursing homes, for psychological support for staff and residents, especially in Val-de-Marne, Hauts-de-Seine and Seine-Saint- Denis.
During this second wave of Covid-19, MSF intends to rely on more complete medical teams.
“It will always be linked to the existing teams in the field,” explains Olivia Gayraud.
The first teams will be operational at the end of the week.
Teams made up of a doctor, a nurse and a psychologist
In some cases, it will be a question of "directly strengthening medical and nursing care", in others of "providing technical advice to control the risk of infection and continue to organize family visits for example", details MSF, which also wants to offer the supply of medical equipment, for example to place patients on oxygen.
“MSF is generally interested in populations excluded from healthcare,” explained Dr Jean-Hervé Bradol, director of studies at the MSF Foundation (and former president of the NGO) AFP.
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These teams, employed by the organization, would be made up of a doctor, a nurse and a psychologist, he added.
“The nursing homes need reinforcements, to help keep the sick in the establishments, that they are treated on the spot”, continues the former leader, stressing that the retirement homes were often “minimally medicalized”.
The device could be offered first in retirement homes with which the NGO is in contact in Île-de-France, “but we are already exploring how to extend it to others. regions, ”adds Dr Bradol.