It is a real rant. Doctor Hervé Boissin, member of the National Council of the Order, in charge of the observatory for the safety of doctors, denounces a disorganization which partly explains the shortage of masks in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic due to the coronavirus.
And for this general practitioner, it is urgent because the doctors, whose role he believes is to continue to be able to examine the patients, will fall one after the other.
What do you think of the shortage of masks for healthcare professionals?
HERVE BOISSIN. We are at war, repeated Emmanuel Macron. That's right, but the organization is not up to war. Mask stocks exist, even if they are insufficient, but sometimes the authorities do not even know where these stocks are. Worse, they do not know how to distribute these masks. There is no coordination, even prefects who complain about it as they told me. We have been promised masks for fifteen days, we still have nothing or so drop by drop. Doctors go to the front without orders and without equipment, it's serious! We no longer trust the government.
What do you recommend in the face of this situation?
It is necessary as quickly as possible to name a general for the supply, an organizer who must animate a cell of command and make ensure a distribution of masks full time. Doctors must be equipped with masks, gloves, and even disposable coveralls if I push the reasoning. It's urgent.
Why ?
From next week, everything risks exploding. Doctors will fall one after the other. This morning, two infected town doctors told me that they had to close their offices. In Paris, SOS Doctors is on the go. All because they go to the front without equipment, without anything. I went on a pharmacy tour again this morning, to no avail. In the meantime, we are tinkering with personal initiatives. Monday, I will distribute with the Order of Paris some 15,000 FFP2 masks and between 30,000 and 40,000 surgical masks to practitioners in the capital.
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What other observations do you make?
According to the information that goes back to me, medical offices are empty in Paris, same thing in the provinces. In Rouen, for example, I had an online office of five general practitioners. They are twiddling their thumbs because the patients no longer come.
If the patients no longer come, it is because the instructions are to call their doctor, not to go to their place…
I consider this to be a total error. We are in a care phase. However, not everything can be done by telephone or teleconsultation. I remind you that a clinical examination takes precedence. You must therefore call your doctor and also go to see him if necessary. In my office, the patient rings, we take the temperature, we give him a mask and disinfectant. In case of suspicion, it is installed in a dedicated and partitioned place where I examine it. This is another reason for the masks to arrive very quickly and for us to be able to do our work and honor our oath. If the patients no longer move, we will also miss other pathologies. A high fever can be a sign of other serious illnesses. And there are all these fragile patients that we no longer see. This epidemic should not produce another catastrophe.
Are there other issues that come back to you from the field?
Yes, with the sanitary reserve. The website to register does not work! Just this morning, I received around fifty messages from doctors who couldn't connect. It's annoying because this health reserve is essential. Similarly, the CPAM telephone line dedicated to sick doctors does not work or does not work very well.
Doctors have also told you how surprised they were to be checked while on the move…
Yes, I regret that colleagues have suffered unjustified checks during their outings. A lot of cases came to my attention yesterday ( Editor's note: Thursday ) and throughout France. In the provinces, a doctor was retained 40 minutes, others were fined in Paris, even a practitioner of SOS Doctors, all on the grounds that they had not completed their certificate of derogatory displacement. However, the professional card is enough! At the request of my president, I intervened with the health adviser at the Ministry of the Interior to ask him that this situation stopped.