Liberal doctors worried and angry over lack of masks

• Emmanuel Macron promised the carers that they would quickly receive protective masks Monday evening.
• An emergency for general practitioners and specialists who have not yet received these masks and who have been alerting for several days about the dramatic consequences of this slowness.

"It is lamentable, we send the caregivers to the pipe breaker without protection", gets angry Jean-Paul Hamon, general practitioner in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine) and president of the Federation of the doctors of France. Last Wednesday, Olivier Véran had promised that FFP2 masks would be sent to liberal doctors. But again on Monday, the testimony of caregivers in the city complaining of a blatant lack of protections swarmed on social networks.

Monday evening, Emmanuel Macron promised that the twenty-five departments most affected by the epidemic would receive masks for caregivers this Tuesday, the other departments by Thursday.

Liberals waiting

Will these promises be quickly followed up on? The government is trying to reassure this Tuesday, ensuring that by Thursday, pharmacies will receive new stocks of masks, which can be removed by carers, provided they produce a professional card. So don't bother asking if you are a private individual (or worse, to steal it…). "Our priority today is that caregivers can have these masks," assured Sibeth Ndiaye during the report of the Council of Ministers Tuesday noon. By adding: "this first line of caregivers, if it is itself too infected with the coronavirus", then "we are facing serious difficulties. "

Too late ? Normally, Liberals had to receive lots to have three FFP2 masks per day per doctor for a long time. “This Tuesday, we do not see the tip of the tail of a mask!, Storm Jean-Paul Hamon. In the cabinet, we hardly have any more. And we are two out of five infected doctors, I have been positive since Monday. And one of the two replacements is being tested. The fight will end for lack of fighters. "

An alarming situation, when the number of coronavirus cases doubles every three days in France and the number of deaths will depend heavily on the resistance of our health system. And that the Liberals come to the support of hospitals to treat patients other than those affected by Covid-19. Because diabetes, cancer, hypertension do not spare the French. If the situation deteriorates, "we, medical specialists, of any specialty, are at the disposal of territorial organizations to bring all the help that will be necessary to primary care physicians and to private and public hospital physicians to meet the massive demand care, "said Franck Devulder, president of the CSMF specialists union.

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“They did not order and send these protections on time. "

Jean-Paul Hamon does not hide his anger. “The Liberals, like the hospital workers, did not receive adequate protections. Surgical masks are available, but these are colanders. It only protects people around you when you cough, it doesn't protect the mask wearer. If you suture a face, if you are an ENT, dentist, it is clearly insufficient. They did not order and send these protections on time. "

Same anger and misunderstanding for Patrick Gasser, president of Avenir spé, union of specialists and gastroenterologist in Nantes. “No, Emmanuel Macron did not reassure the caregivers. I had the president of the Union of Liberal Doctors of Ile-de-France just now online, who said to me "We still don't know where the masks are and how the distribution will be done" ... In My clinic, we are told to save on masks. Normally, we have to change an FFP2 every 4 hours, but we are told to keep it for 10 hours. We can understand that we are in a period of scarcity, but that we are told the truth: when will they arrive and where? And to add that the question is also urgent concerning the other protections: gloves, glasses, overcoats, hydroalcoholic gel are likely to miss quickly…

A call for solidarity

The situation could no doubt evolve rapidly. Asked at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Council, assured to have transmitted to the ministry the urgency of the situation: "Messages come to us from everywhere, hospitals, city doctor, to tell us that they are on the verge of a lack of masks, "he confirmed.

In addition, the National Federation of Emergency Ambulance Technicians (FNTAU) launched this Tuesday “a national appeal to all associations of Civil Security and all the departmental fire and rescue services that are not immediately involved in this crisis health, as well as to all municipalities, to donate their stocks of protective equipment to health professionals. Another encouraging initiative, the weavers of Charlieu launched on Tuesday the manufacture of reusable fabric masks. On Monday, one of the Tissages de Charlieu companies, Indispensac, estimated that it could produce up to 100,000 masks per day.

We have finalized our mask; production starts in 1 hour. We are in the process of validating our daily production capacities. pic.twitter.com/GivoQaxFoF

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