A patient has just landed in Strasbourg, coming from Lyon last Friday.

He is taken care of before being transported to the hospital.

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Jean-Francois Badias / AP / SIPA

  • During the first wave of Covid-19, patient transfers only took place in one direction.

    The Grand-Est, very affected, sent some of its patients for treatment in other French regions or border countries.

  • With this second wave, the hospital services of the Grand-Est region are not saturated and therefore welcome patients from other more affected regions.

    But at the same time, they transfer some to Germany.

  • It is in fact a practical matter of proximity but also of anticipation in view of the epidemic peak.

Two medical planes landed last week at Entzheim airport, near Strasbourg.

On board each time: two patients with Covid-19.

Thursday, they arrived from Clermond-Ferrand;

Lyon Friday.

Transfers of patients between regions have resumed since the third week of October.

Particularly affected, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region has seen 61 people leave since October 23 and will continue to relieve its hospitals in tension.

"We are considering nearly 200 transfers between the next two weeks to precisely allow to cope with this continuous increase in patients in intensive care", announced Sunday Jean-Yves Grall, the director general of the Regional Health Agency ARA.

"A question of opportunities"

Like New Aquitaine, Grand-Est should once again be a privileged destination.

The reason is simple: its hospitals are not saturated.

According to the latest figures from the ARS, 219 out of the 471 places available in intensive care were accessible.

At Strasbourg university hospitals, for example, there were still 19 beds left on Monday morning.

In view of these figures, how can we explain that some patients were sent to Germany at the same time?

“For a question of opportunities,” answers

20 Minutes

Eric Goettmann, from the Metz-Thionville regional hospital.

“There are four patients who left the establishments of Sarreguemines, Saint-Avold and Thionville to go to Saarbrücken or Völklingen, ie a few kilometers across the border.

Each time, it happened in an ambulance, it was very close.

Transferring them to Metz or Strasbourg would have taken longer.

"

Towards a rise in intensive care?

Useful precision, these Moselle establishments were not saturated at the time of carrying out the transfers.

"The epidemic peak is not yet there and the objective was to anticipate any risk of saturation of critical care", continues the communication manager of the CHR Metz-Thionville, speaking of an "evolving" number of places in intensive care.

“We have already rearmed the beds and will do it again if necessary.

"

According to our information, the ARS du Grand-Est would have requested a plan to increase the cost of resuscitation beds in the region.

Discussions are said to be ongoing.

In the meantime, transfers abroad should also continue, so as always to avoid saturation of services.

Sunday evening, 1,848 people were hospitalized in the Grand-Est because of the Covid-19.

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  • Covid 19