At the Bordeaux University Hospital, the families of patients admitted for coronavirus in intensive care can continue to visit them.

The precautions taken by the medical teams are important and the presence of relatives allows patients to be supported in the fight against the disease.

REPORT

On Saturday, the number of people hospitalized for Covid-19 decreased slightly, according to figures released on Saturday by Public Health France.

In hospitals, very few patients receive a visit from their relatives.

The healthcare teams refuse them in the vast majority of cases, because of the high rate of contagiousness of the virus.

But not everywhere: at the Bordeaux University Hospital, families of patients admitted to intensive care can continue to visit them.

By appointment, husbands, wives, brothers and sisters can visit their loved ones for an hour.

"The contribution of families is extremely important", justifies at the microphone of Europe 1, Doctor Pierre Sioniac, resuscitator. 

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"It is the family who will make us the link with the patient"

"Often, we cannot talk to patients who are sedated for various reasons. It is the family who will make us the link with the patient," he explains.

"[At the moment], we even accept two people from the same family per day," he continues. 

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Important precautions are taken

An approach appreciated by relatives of patients.

Being able to go to this intensive care unit at the bedside of his wife suffering from Covid is essential, explains the husband of a patient.

"I speak to her and if she hears me, so much the better. And we are informed especially of her condition: how she is," he emphasizes. 

For each person who comes to visit a patient, the precaution taken by the hospital team is maximum: "We have all the necessary arrangements", recognizes the husband of a patient.

"We have protective gowns, we have masks with duckbills (FFP2 masks, editor's note). We are helmets and masked with visors, and we also have gloves," he says. 

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At the beginning of February, hospitals in Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes, and in Montpellier, in Hérault, had taken the same decision, reported our colleagues from franceinfo.