Coronavirus: medical trains, a new method to unclog hospitals

Text by: Philippe Lecaplain

In France, to unclog hospitals that are struggling to cope with the influx of patients, two medical TGVs this Sunday transferred new serious patients from Ile-de-France to hospitals in Brittany (Vannes, Lorient, Quimper , Rennes, Saint-Malo, Morlaix and Brest).

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Seen from the outside, it is TGV like the others. But inside, it's hard to find the train that takes you on vacation. The seats were folded down to anchor stretchers and create boxes equipped with resuscitation equipment like those of the hospital. The luggage racks serve as material reserves. There are four per car, in the lower part because the floor is dedicated to the circulation of nursing staff. The bar car is transformed into a medical space.

For each patient wedged in a shell and intubated mattress, they are each time seven to eight caregivers with difficulty in maneuvering in the aisle, stuck in their suits, hampered by their masks and protective glasses.

The advantage of transforming a TGV into a hospital train is twofold. First, as an emergency doctor explains, it is " an extremely safe mode of transportation for patients, in terms of vibration and deceleration ". As the train is stable, " complicated resuscitation gestures can be practiced during the trip ".

Then, the high-speed medical train allows transfers much faster than by ambulance. In barely two to three hours, patients who left Paris arrived in stations in regions less affected by the contagion.

“We are one of the only countries to be able to do this thanks to the medical teams of Samu. These are very fragile patients and it is very cumbersome logistics ”, explains Doctor Agnès Ricard-Hibon, president of the French Society of Emergency Medicine.

As an additional precaution, a classic train is coupled to the train in order to face possible hazards, such as a collision with game.

In May of last year, there was an exercise mobilizing 400 people. It was then a simulated attack with the transformation of a passenger train into a convoy transporting the wounded between Paris and Metz, to allow them access, from city center to city center, to large hospitals.

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