Patient transfers: extensive logistics to be implemented in France

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After the Grand-Est region, Île-de-France is now approaching the saturation of its intensive care beds. A situation which requires transfers of patients to hospitals in less affected regions, in particular by TGV.

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This Friday, the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency is sounding the alarm. The figures linked to the coronavirus epidemic in the Paris region are now " dizzying ", with 1,300 people in intensive care and at least 241 nursing homes affected by the epidemic, assured its director Aurélien Rousseau on RTL.

Same tone on the side of hospitals in the Paris region, that same day: " We are pushing the walls everywhere to accommodate as many these patients in intensive care, (but) we are not yet on the plateau of the epidemic curve, solutions will have to be found , ”said Bruno Riou, AP-HP crisis medical director, on France Inter.

Distributing the patients nationwide will now represent the central and crucial issue of the coming days. “ Today, in the same way as in eastern France, inter-regional transfers have been used, we must also start to transfer patients to regions which are least affected and which have availability. in intensive care beds , ”continued Professor Riou.

A national cell

If on paper things seem easy to conceive, the practical organization requires a great logistical force. 24 hours ago, to relieve the hospitals of the Grand-Est reached saturation, a medical TGV was chartered. On board, twenty patients, who left Strasbourg and Colmar for Angers or Nantes, cities less affected by the epidemic. However, this transfer by high-speed train is only possible for patients who are not yet in the acute phase and therefore do not need heavy resuscitation.

► Read also: Coronavirus in France: evidence of tension in hospitals in the Grand-Est

Another solution: using the army and its medical planes and ships, as part of Operation Resilience launched on March 25 by Emmanuel Macron , to transport patients. Last Tuesday, an airborne medical evacuation allowed several of them to leave eastern France to reach Brest and Quimper.

Thursday, the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, near Paris, experienced in turn a saturation of its beds. Quickly similar transfers should be set up. “ It must be piloted at the national level, there must be a definition of priorities. Until now the priority was the East but this priority will very quickly be that of Ile-de-France and we must already start to consider this kind of thing ", insisted Bruno Riou, while stressing that the services of the AP-HP were not yet full. " We have to do it now in Ile-de-France, the goal is to find availability for patients of tomorrow or the day after tomorrow." "

A supervision unit at the national level is being created.

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