While some hospitals are on the verge of out of stock and not all healthcare staff have them, surgical masks have become a rare and sought after commodity. So much so that some 11,400 surgical masks and 1,200 FFP2 masks, essential for personnel in contact with patients affected by Covid-19, were recently stolen from a warehouse at the Montpellier University Hospital. The hospital has filed a complaint.
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This major flight is not the only one in a climate of scarcity where all pharmacies in the country, even those in hospitals, are awaiting deliveries of these vital equipment for good continuity of care.
On a smaller scale than in Hérault, the Périgueux hospital (Dordogne) was also recently the victim of a theft of masks and hydroalcoholic gels. A targeted theft, since only these products are missing from the establishment's oncology department ... In Paris, some 4,000 masks were also stolen from the Necker hospital. And dozens of boxes of 50 masks have disappeared from Bicêtre, Bichat, Bretonneau, and La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospitals.
I just received the masks, not FFP2 at all. I'm going to close my practice if it goes on like this
A practitionerIn total, at the start of March, more than 8,000 masks and some 1,200 bottles of hydroalcoholic gel had been stolen from hospitals dependent on the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) while, reports Le Journal de Saône-et- Loire , "3000 masks would have been stolen from the Hôtel-Dieu du Creusot hospital" , at the end of February. Having become rare and expensive, this essential protective material is also the subject of all types of trafficking or telephone scams by community pharmacists whom sharks are trying to abuse.
In fact, although the President of the Republic assured in his televised intervention on Monday that "the masks will be delivered to pharmacies from tomorrow evening (Tuesday) in the 25 departments most affected. Wednesday for the rest of the national territory ” , the disappointment can be read on the forums of specialists. Thus, on the website of the Quotidien du Médecin , where comments are reserved for subscribers, a practitioner comments: “I just received the masks, not at all from FFP2. I will close my practice if it continues like this. ”
"No guarantee of supply"
In fact, even in hospitals that are not in one of the most affected areas, panic prevails among caregivers. At the CHU of Nîmes, the chairman of the medical establishment commission, alerted to the high consumption of masks, alerted Tuesday in an email all the doctors of the hospital: "At this rate, while the influx Covid + n 'has not yet arrived at the CHU, we will only have 3 days left and we have no guarantee of short-term supply.'
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In this context, three thefts inside doctors' vehicles have been recorded in recent days by the regional union of health professionals (URPS) Doctors of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, a representative professional body. Thus, its president, Dr. Pierre-Jean Termanian, asks all the doctors in the region "not to leave their caduceus (which is worth a traffic pass, note) prominently on their windshields and to remove, if they have them, the masks and hydroalcoholic gel in their car. ”