While the threat of a shortage is looming for certain anesthetics, due to the very large number of patients still in intensive care, the State will centralize orders from Monday, so as to manage the redistribution between hospitals , via the regional health agencies.

The health authorities fear a shortage within seven to fifteen days, for certain essential drugs in intensive care. Several sedatives, or curares, are already lacking in some hospitals due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The government will therefore requisition from next Monday five of these drugs: two hypnotics, Midazolam and Propofol, and three curares, Atracurium, Cisatracurium, and Rocuronium, to then redistribute them, as it already does for masks.

The lack of certain hypnotics, this anesthesiologist in intensive care already notes it in his hospital in Marne: "We can replace them with other anesthetics, and even if we are not used to using them, we adapt . We do with what we have, "he explains to Europe 1." We try to target the most essential drugs, for the people who really need them. "

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A demand multiplied by a thousand for certain drugs

This tension on Midazolam, Propofol and curares is explained by the very large number of patients still in intensive care, worldwide, and the fact that they stay there for a long time. The demand for certain products has multiplied by a thousand, says Frédéric Collet, the president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies. "We have, on some sites, increased our production capacity by 40, even 50 by running our sites seven days a week, 24 hours a day. On certain treatments, we delivered in one week what we usually deliver in a year! Consider that we have approximately 2.5 million patients concerned, in 190 countries ... "

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A redistribution ensured by the ARS

And the government will therefore, starting next Monday, centralize orders for French hospitals. This strategy has had some hiccups with masks We remember the battles between regions biting masks on the tarmac at Basel-Mulhouse airport, but for the secretary general of the French Society of Anesthesia and Resuscitation, the professor Pierre Albaladejo, this method "has more advantages than disadvantages, because the government has a more striking force in terms of negotiations with the laboratories." He adds: "The redistribution will then be done by the regional health agencies, depending on the number of patients and the stock of medication in each hospital."

However the needs are not ready to drop because it will also have to resume, soon, the operations shifted so far, excluding people affected by the coronavirus and which also require anesthetics.