This Parisian pharmacist was surprised on Tuesday by receiving the boxes of surgical masks intended to be given to general practitioners who request it to take care of a patient possibly carrying the coronavirus.
The reason for his concern? “The boxes of 50 delivered to us mention the expiry date March 2020. They could still have given us masks which expire later. " No doubt. Lot 44, made in France on March 25, 2015, will expire at the end of the month, as the label specifies. "We should have had more explanations, there I am in uncertainty", adds this pharmacist.
The order of pharmacists assumes
How to explain this situation ? Contacted this Tuesday at the end of the day, the council of the order of pharmacists, which organizes in coordination with the Ministry of Health this gigantic distribution of 10 million masks to all pharmacies in France this week, assumes and gives details.
"The expiration date of March 2020 does not mean that the masks are not usable for the next few days. We know very well that, given the high demand, these masks distributed free of charge to doctors who wish to, will find takers in the coming days, ”says Carine Wolf-Thal, president of the Order of Pharmacists.
Expiration relates more to the elastic - which risks breaking - than the quality of protection of the mask. However, to avoid possible questions, even from pharmacists who fall on this date, would it not have been more judicious to deliver only masks with later expiration dates?
Again, the order of pharmacists assumes: “We have had discussions with the State. The crisis unit of the Ministry of Health clearly asked us to distribute these stocks, even if they have a near expiration, otherwise we would have had to throw them in the trash in the coming weeks, "adds Karine Wolf-Thal. The Ministry of Health has denied the risk of a shortage of masks.
The doubts of some doctors
These stocks are part of the fifteen million masks that must be distributed in all pharmacies by the end of the crisis, as announced by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. "It was a huge logistics, but the state trusted us, knowing the responsiveness of our system of wholesalers-distributors, which supplies all pharmacies in France," added the president of the order. A second wave of supplies is planned in the most affected regions, then a third throughout the territory, depending on the evolution of the epidemic.
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Some doctors, however, also express their doubts. “We are impatient to receive these promised masks, because as the transition to stage 3 of the epidemic looms, it was time to have them. But in our eyes there is nothing to argue about, ”comments Dr Serge Smadja, head of SOS Doctors in Paris. According to the latest instructions from the Ministry of Health, these are not so-called FFP2 masks - reserved for severe cases in hospitals - but simple surgical masks.
It is by a message “DGS-Urgent”, of March 2, relayed in particular on the site of the council of the order of pharmacists, that the persons in charge of dispensaries and the doctors became aware of the procedure to follow: “Each pharmacist will receive during this first week of March 2020 a minimum of ten boxes of 50 anti-projection masks, or 500 masks from the national stock. The holder will distinguish them from his usual stock and will affix on the box a label stipulating state stock ”, specifies the message.
Call to “civicism”
"Each healthcare professional receiving this message - general practitioner, medical specialist, state-certified nurse, midwife, dental surgeon - is invited to come to their local pharmacy to remove a box of 50 masks," adds the message of the DGS. To avoid abuse, he must present his professional card. The call to “good citizenship” is mentioned.
According to a doctor contacted, "the distribution is rather well organized, even if it was a little late. But 50 masks per doctor is not much, it just allows to treat 25 patients, because it takes one mask for the doctor and one for the patient. Others will be needed if the crisis continues. "