Paris (AFP)

In the front line against the coronavirus, hundreds of nursing staff had to be removed as a precaution from their hospitals in France, forcing establishments already under tension to further reduce the airfoil, in a context of chronic shortage of staff and means.

The Tenon hospital in Paris, where a serious case of Covid-19 is being taken care of, has placed 56 of its caregivers in "fortnight" at their home, where they will have to stay for two weeks to avoid spreading the virus.

They had been in contact with the 82-year-old infected patient, who was not immediately placed in solitary confinement when he was admitted a week ago, as he was not from a risk area. Among these caregivers, three were tested positive for the disease, without any sign of severity, and hospitalized at Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris, a benchmark establishment.

Thus amputated, Tenon had to relieve his emergency service: he no longer receives the firefighters or the Smur, and welcomes only patients arriving on their own. Five out of twenty beds have also been closed in intensive care, where the patient is currently located.

"We have classified all health professionals (doctors, nurses, nursing assistants ...) according to their level of exposure. The list is updated regularly, it is evolving," said Professor Gilles Pialoux, chief of infectious diseases service. No one, however, has tested positive since it appeared that the patient had contracted the disease, he said.

This situation is similar to that of Oise, where around 200 hospital staff from Compiègne and Creil hospitals have been in isolation at home since Wednesday, which has caused the mayor, Philippe Marini (LR), to be alarmed. of the "lack of medical resources to continue to receive patients of Compiegne residents in emergencies and in intensive care", and to appeal to "national solidarity".

Because these eviction measures occur in a context of unprecedented social crisis in the public hospital, where the lack of beds and staff has been denounced for a long time.

- "Call for solidarity" -

"There is a background of hospital tension, there is a tension in the emergency services linked to the period (seasonal flu epidemic, editor's note) ... all this happens in addition," argued Professor Pialoux.

To withstand the shock, Tenon "appealed for solidarity" from the healthcare community, after a meeting with the director general of the AP-HP (Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris), Martin Hirsch, said Professor Pialoux .

The hospital thus received "very substantial" aid from the Parisian public establishments of La Pitié and St-Antoine, where patients were redirected "who do not require special supervision".

"We adapt, day by day," said Professor Muriel Fartoukh, head of the resuscitation service at Tenon hospital. "We must be very vigilant on the risk-benefit balance vis-à-vis the nursing staff on the one hand, and our care mission on the other", she underlined. Especially since "there are very specialized personnel, that you don't change like that".

But if the situation evolves "in epidemic mode (when the virus will circulate more widely Editor's note), we will be forced to function differently", anticipates Dr. Hélène Goulet, head of the emergency department.

In other words: all caregivers exposed to the virus without showing symptoms will not be able to be isolated, and all will have to come to work with a mask. And patients who are infected but mildly will no longer be kept in hospital as is the case today.

According to Professor Pialoux, Parisian establishments will ultimately have to "get out" of the current "bipolar" organization, where only the hospitals of Pitié-Salpêtrière and Bichat take care of patients who test positive.

This week, the union Sud-Santé des Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) expressed its fears regarding the current means which "will not allow optimal care of the population in the context of a coronavirus epidemic" .

© 2020 AFP