INTERVIEW
The health reserve, too, is mobilized against the coronavirus. The health reserve is made up of doctors, nurses, nursing assistants and paramedics who do not work, but who are voluntary and can be mobilized at any time by the Ministry of Health or regional health agencies. Today, this reserve is made up of 21,000 people in France, 3,600 of whom are immediately available, ready to work. Since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, 1,225 former doctors, nurses or other medical professionals have offered their services. Europe 1 met one of them.
"When you are a doctor one day, you are always a doctor. You have to be there!" Sums up Philippe Koskas, who worked as a general practitioner for 40 years in Neuilly. Retired for 4 years, he did not hesitate for a second when one of his friends explained to him that the hospitals needed arms. "France is going through a test, I believe that nobody can remain indifferent. And when one has the training of doctor, one is there to help, there is no problem there. It seems obvious . "
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Express training
This young retiree - 71 years old all the same - already knows his first mission: to respond to patients who call 15. To do this, he begins express training on Thursday at Samu. "There is the technical side to knowing how to switch calls, how to answer. And then you have to identify people, their problems, find the type of response that needs to be made."
Philippe Koskas even says he is ready, if the epidemic requires it, to replace general practitioners in the city, therefore on the front line, in contact with the sick, despite his age.
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