“When you are a caregiver and there is a crisis like this, you support your hospital colleagues and you go! I call on my colleagues to do so, including retirees. It's like cycling, you can't forget! "
General practitioner in Paris, in the 19th district, and various left senator related to the PS group, Bernard Jomier did not hesitate. Since Thursday, this 56-year-old man joined the South Ile-de-France hospital group (GHSIF), in Melun, to lend a hand in the context of the epidemic of Covid-19, the coronavirus.
A real support because the GHSIF which welcomed 150 positive patients on Friday and at the same date had about twenty caregivers affected, including six doctors.
A volunteer contract
“Usually, I consult once a week in my office. As the parliament is almost at a standstill and my medical colleagues do not need me more, I offered my help on the medGo application, which is not the dedicated health reserve for retirees. I chose Seine-et-Marne because I partly live on the side of Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne. I also know that this department is in a difficult situation, ”he explains.
Melun's hospital contacted him two days later. On Wednesday, he signs a volunteer contract for four days a week - he works on Friday in Paris - and starts the next day at GHSIF. He is assigned to the short-term hospitalization unit.
“The patients we receive there already have symptoms. We test them, we give them a scan to see the state of their lungs, then we orient them ”, says Bernard Jomier, who indicates that he and his colleagues are“ well equipped with FFP2 masks, an overcoat, a charlotte , glasses and gloves when you enter the rooms ”.
This exercise of the profession quite other than in his Parisian cabinet is far from destabilizing him. Bernard Jomier has rolled his bump beyond our borders. Specializing in tropical medicine, he experienced cholera in Guinea, the civil war in Liberia in the 1990s and in Sarajevo, in 1995, with the NGO Médecins du monde. He was also an employee at the Peugeot clinic in China, more precisely ... in Wuhan.
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“There is no scale in human suffering. It is terrible to see a single elderly person suffering. There is no nobility in caring for things that seem more serious. When you are a caregiver, you are a caregiver! ", He says. And Bernard Jomier is not the only one to reinforce the GHSIF of Melun-Sénart.
39 doctors to reinforce the long-term hospital
“We have 28 outside doctors who have joined us and there will be a total of 39 next week. They are liberal doctors without activity, or working for National Education, Maternal and Child Protection, occupational medicine, or retirees ”, specifies Bastien Duhamel, deputy director of the hospital.
Applications arrive through a regional platform and also via spontaneous calls. “We receive four a day on average. Wednesday morning, a retired cardiologist from Melun contacted us to offer help, ”adds the manager. According to him, most are oriented to lend a hand to the emergencies and the Samu.
150 student nurses mobilized
The site also has the support of around forty nurses, as many caregivers from outside and twelve Red Cross volunteers. The Nursing Student Institute (IFSI) also sent its 150 students to the hospital.
Those of the 3rd year are operational for care, those of the 2nd year are assigned to the work of nursing assistants and the young people of the 1st year are directed to cleaning or laundry. The Institute also entrusted the hospital with 30 nursing assistants in training.
"Newcomers are entrusted to a dedicated cell run by health managers who make them aware of the services and provide them with accelerated training," says Bastien Duhamel.
"We have tripled the number of sheave beds"
These additional staff work in an establishment that adapts progressively with 120 beds dedicated to patients of the Covid-19, 42 beds in intensive care, 15 more on the Saint-Jean-Ermitage side and six at the Fontaines clinic ( in the city).
"We have tripled the number of sheave beds and managed to find respirators through different networks," rejoices Dominique Peljak, the director of the site, which on Friday had 150 positive patients and 37 recovered.
The reinforcement also comes from the outside. In addition to the moral support sent by the citizens, in particular those of the Schuman district who displayed banners at their windows, just in front of the Santépôle, donations pour in: 8,000 masks donated by the city of Melun, 4,000 by the village of Pringy, 1,000 by the company Elcimaï.
"Friday morning Michel Bisson (PS), mayor of Lieusaint and president of Grand Paris Sud, came to bring us in his car a hundred coats offered by an agrifood company", underlines Dominique Peljak, director of GHSIF. He also cites donations from Domino's Pizza, McDonald's, Delicatessen, etc. "It's good for the morale of the troops," he adds.
If you wish to make a donation (food, equipment, loan of a room, etc.), contact the hospital at the following address: solidaritehopital@ghsif.fr.
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