Paris (AFP)
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran stressed on Saturday that people with disabilities "must benefit from the same care as the rest of the population", even refusing to "imagine" a "sorting" of patients with coronavirus, during a press conference.
"I cannot imagine that this practice exists," insisted the minister, who was speaking by videoconference with the secretary of state for people with disabilities, Sophie Cluzel.
He reacted to concerns expressed by the associative and medical community, that people with disabilities could be, because of their disability, refused hospital care if they contracted Covid-19.
"Disability should not be a criterion for refusing treatment, whether we are talking about simple hospitalization or resuscitation. I am thus reacting to a controversy that arose following the internal publication within of a regional health agency, of documents which emanated from a French company and which could have suggested that the presence of a mental handicap or a cognitive handicap could constitute a brake on the admission to intensive care of patients with Covid-19 ", said Mr. Véran.
"I defend this with the utmost firmness (...) there can be no question of putting the slightest obstacle to their admission for these reasons alone," added the minister, adding that "the controversy was not born of 'a practice that would have been observed' but from this publication.
"I have not had an echo of situations ... I cannot even use the word" sorting "which seems to me so far removed from the vocations, ethics, deontology and the incredible dedication shown by health professionals on the territory, "he added.
Arnaud de Broca, president of the Handicapped collective had reported Friday to AFP "feedback" nourishing his "strong concern" that people with disabilities may be denied care if they contract the coronavirus.
A doctor from the Grand Est who requested anonymity told AFP he was shocked by the email from a local hospital who considered "necessary to adopt a proportionate care strategy" to "maximize the chances survival rate for residents who can potentially pass a course ", and" accompany "(without hospitalizing)" those who unfortunately will not pass it ".
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