A first level of 1,800 beds occupied in intensive care in the services of Île-de-France, due to the coronavirus epidemic, must be crossed in a few days.
This Sunday, forty AP-HP crisis medical directors reacted and said they were preparing to have to “sort out patients” to face the third epidemic wave that overwhelmed the Paris region, in a column published by the Sunday newspaper.
"We cannot remain silent without betraying the Hippocratic oath that we took one day", write seriously these doctors who manage the emergency in the Hospitals of Paris.
"In the next two weeks", they estimate, "we have almost certainty on the number of critical care beds that will be necessary, and we already know that our care capacities will be exceeded at the end of the day. of this period ”.
"This sorting will concern all patients"
"In this situation of disaster medicine where there will be a glaring mismatch between the needs and the available resources, we will be forced to sort out patients in order to save as many lives as possible", add the 41 signatories, in the front row including Professor Bruno Riou, crisis medical director of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris.
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"This sorting will concern all patients, Covid and non-Covid, in particular for the access of adult patients to critical care", they continue, indicating that they "never experienced such a situation, even during the worst attacks suffered in recent years. years ”.
Admittedly, "the triage of patients has already started since major medical and surgical deprogramming have already been imposed on us and we know very well that these are associated with loss of opportunity and non-access to care for some patients".
But "these deprogramming will have to intensify in the days to come, soon sparing only vital emergencies".
The regional health agency (ARS) has asked hospitals in Ile-de-France "to anticipate an increase in the number of beds" for critical care with a target of 2,200 beds available to accommodate Covid patients. 19.
