The “coronavirus course” at Grasse hospital, March 9, 2020 - Frederic DIDES / SIPA

Faced with the spread of the new coronavirus, the government has asked hospitals and clinics to trigger their "white plans", and retirement homes their "blue plans", maximum mobilization devices to deal with exceptional situations.

Since 2004, each healthcare establishment, public or private, has been obliged to adopt such a plan in order to be able, in the event of a crisis, "to immediately mobilize the means of any kind at its disposal", thanks to protocols defined and tested in advance.

Crisis units and staff recall

These plans must take into account lessons learned from past crises or events, said last year the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, citing the attacks of 2015 and 2016 and the epidemics due to the Ebola, Chikungunya or Zika viruses. In the event of a crisis, hospitals must therefore plan how to distribute patients according to the seriousness of their condition, postpone non-urgent interventions, open additional beds, or reinforce their teams by recalling staff.

Thus, according to Cathy Le Gac, from the SUD-Santé Solidaires union at the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), nurses and nursing assistants recently retired have been asked by their former employer to return to work in reinforcement. The white plan also defines the procedures for setting up a crisis unit, a circulation and parking plan within the establishment, a security and containment plan, etc.

How to work with 20% absenteeism?

In medico-social structures, such as retirement homes, we speak of a “blue plan”: faced with a heat wave or an epidemic, establishments must have a “referent”, coordinating doctor or establishment director, and provide for the terms of cooperation with a nearby health establishment.

"We are asked to anticipate, to think about how to continue operating in a degraded situation," says Romy Lasserre Saint-Maurice, director of a Parisian retirement home. If some of the staff were to fall ill - or were unavailable due to school closings - "for example, we have to think about how we work with 20% absenteeism".

Restriction of visits to residents

"The objective is to make a business continuity plan: we look at where all our staff live and we wonder if they can still be in service in the next four weeks", detailed Florence Arnaiz- Maumé, general delegate of Synerpa (bringing together the main private players in nursing homes), interviewed by RTL. "Blue plan or not, we still have a staffing problem," said Pascal Champvert, from the association of directors of retirement homes and AD-PA home help structures.

The blue plans also include measures to restrict visits to residents. In the private establishments of the Korian or Orpea groups, these are now prohibited, except "special situation" or "exceptional authorization".

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  • Retirement home
  • epidemic
  • Ehpad
  • Coronavirus
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