The health system fully mobilized. After stage 1, which consists in avoiding the entry of the virus on the territory, in particular by tracing each patient, then stage 2 whose objective is to limit its spread by confining the patients, looms during the stage 3, the one in which the epidemic is managed while preventing the health system from exploding under patient demand. A phase which should be maintained for 8 to 12 weeks.
Sign of mobilization of the authorities, the Ministry of Health on Thursday asked all public hospitals to postpone non-emergency operations. Several regional health agencies, notably in Ile-de-France and in Hérault, newly affected by the virus, have also asked private establishments to release all their acute care and resuscitation beds by Monday.
The most serious cases in the public hospital
The announcement of a transition to stage 3 therefore seems very close. In particular, it will bring the 500 private clinics with MCO (medicine-surgery-obstetrics) services and their 130 emergency services into the care process. 350 private establishments for follow-up care and rehabilitation will also be mobilized. To this reinforcement will be added the structures of the non-profit private sector brought together within the Fehap (federation of non-profit private hospitals and personal assistance establishments), that is 704 care establishments, with their 512 resuscitation beds, and a hundred home care services. Additional resources that will allow the public hospital to focus on the most serious cases.
"In stage 3, we become a referent, like hospitals, and therefore we can take care of patients with coronavirus," explains Lamine Gharbi, president of the FHP, Federation of Private Hospitalization. We are ready: if necessary, we can mobilize 4,000 beds in our critical care services, we can close our operating theaters to use our recovery rooms, equipped with ventilators, and make them into acute care rooms ” .
Need masks
"ARS today asked our members to reschedule all non-emergency operations and to free all their places in intensive care so that the public authorities have from Monday 100% of the capacities of intensive care beds", reports Guillaume Chesnel, director of care at Féhap.
There are still a few details to settle: these private establishments have at best only one week of stock of masks, and the city laboratories with which they work do not all have screening tests for Covid-19. As for the personnel who will follow patients at home, "they do not benefit today from any protection whereas they will be in contact with sick patients", worries the Fehap.