REPORTAGE
It was 8 am this Thursday morning when this new type of nursing home opened its doors. Its mission: to welcome people who have contracted the coronavirus but who do not need to go to the hospital.
"We work by appointment", explains doctor Pascal Dureau, who is piloting the project, "so that in the waiting room there is not more than one person". "We don't want people to cross-contaminate each other, we are extremely careful," he said. As soon as they arrive in this nursing home, the patients wear a mask, as does the secretary and the doctor.
>> LIVE - Follow the evolution of the coronavirus epidemic Thursday, March 19
Do not make patients or caregivers take risks
This is not to short-circuit the classic treatment of patients. It is always mandatory to call 15 if symptoms are felt and then, according to the responses to the questionnaire conducted by telephone, the SAMU takes charge of the patient. If symptoms of coronavirus are effectively suspected without being serious, then an appointment is made with the health care center.
The goal of this initiative is to remove potential "coronavirus" cases from "traditional" medical offices. All, of course, taking great precautions because, in this nursing home, "we do not want to take risks either to the patients who come, or to the caregivers who are in the device".
>> Find all of Nathalie Levy's programs in replay and podcast here
The doctors who officiate in this dedicated medical center are substitute doctors, that is to say that they were not employed. Their unshakable will to exercise their profession, accompanied by the desire to participate in the collective effort to fight against the coronavirus, led them to practice in this place, for the common good. A second house of this type should open in Lyon next Monday.