Doctors pay a heavy price in the fight against Covid-19. How many have died? Difficult to say, because there is no exhaustive census. The National Council of the Order, which includes all the doctors practicing in France, puts forward the figure of 22 deaths of doctors, from the public or private sector, who did not survive their contamination. But this figure, based on feedback from the field, is undoubtedly largely underestimated.
This Friday, the Association of Emergency Physicians of France, Amuf, chaired by Dr Patrick Pelloux, announced the death of an emergency physician following contamination of Covid-19. Aged 60, and based in the Jura, Dr. Eric Loupiac made himself known during social movements at the public hospital. "He wanted to be treated by the teams of Professor Didier Raoult," said Patrick Pelloux on his Twitter account, he died in Marseille. It is the tenth physician death linked to the officially recognized coronavirus.
I am sorry to announce the death due to the coronavirus of my friend and emergency doctor colleague Dr. Eric Loupiac of emergencies and SMUR of #LonsleSonnier. He was a wonderful man, a great doctor. I think of his family and the #amuf of which he was a member is upset.
- Patrick Pelloux (@PatrickPelloux) April 23, 2020However, no precise statistics are yet available for hospital doctors killed by the coronavirus. However, almost twenty cases have already been cited in the regional press, especially in the Grand Est.
On the side of liberal doctors, counting is easier, because deaths are declared via a special coronavirus device set up by their retirement fund which is also their provident fund (work stoppages, invalidity, death, etc.) According to the latest figures, therefore, from the Autonomous Pension Fund of Doctors of France (CARMF), 21 liberal practitioners have died to date, victims of the pandemic. Among them, there are 9 doctors in service, a doctor in combined retirement employment, and 11 retirees, of which it is likely that at least some of them have integrated the health reserve. "I have rage, because many of these deaths of colleagues could have been avoided", reacts Dr. Thierry Lardennois, president of CARMF.
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To these disappearances, we must add the active and contaminated doctors: "To date, on the portal created especially for the coronavirus, we have recorded 3,987 declarations of work stoppages," specifies Thierry Lardennois.
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Equally furious, Dr. Jean-Paul Hamon, president of the Federation of Doctors of France, FMF, and himself infected and arrested for three weeks, denounces the lack of consideration of the authorities for the liberal doctors who are on the front line. the pandemic.
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"After the press conference on Sunday of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and Minister of Health Olivier Véran, we are bitter," he explains. In two and a half hours of intervention with a word to thank the liberal doctors and greet those who went up on the front line with masks which were colanders, not a word for the 4,000 infected colleagues and the 21 deceased ( Editor's note: Number of death of doctors in the private sector) ".
This count of doctors who are victims of the coronavirus is starting to agitate other healthcare spheres. Thursday, the Order of Nurses asked the authorities "a census of the number of nurses infected, hospitalized, or died as a result of Covid-19". According to Adrien de Casabianca, spokesperson for the order, "these data are part of the duty to inform the profession, but also the entire population". A request which seems to have received a favorable response from the side of the Ministry of Health.
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