Paris (AFP)

This July 14th will pay them a special tribute: at the peak of the pandemic and despite limited means, the personnel of the army health service (SSA) were on the front line to support a civilian health system under stress, without ever ceasing to treat the war wounded.

Military chief physician Mathieu was "one of the first to get to the heart of the matter," he said. Broken to the medical evacuations of wounded soldiers, he took medical direction in mid-March of the airborne transfers of patients of the Covid-19, on board Air Force aircraft transformed into a flying resuscitation service.

Chief physician Mathieu also participated in the massive reception of patients with Covid-19 at Percy, who had to reinvent themselves in record time. "We doubled our resuscitation capacities" during the health crisis, he says, referring to "a considerable effort".

From March to mid-June, Percy received nearly 400 patients who tested positive for Covid-19, including 122 in intensive care.

In total, the SSA, which represents 1% of the care offer in France, has taken care of 3% of patients with the virus in intensive care, in its 8 hospitals but also within a resuscitation service under tent ( EMR), deployed in Mulhouse then in Mayotte.

"We had to completely reorganize in a very short time," confirms Diane, civilian occupational therapist at SSA in Percy. Temporarily deprived of their rehabilitation patients, transferred to the Invalides, the staff of this service - speech therapists, physiotherapists, psychomotricians - have "all volunteered to lend a hand in the hospital", says the young woman of 26 years .

Same solidarity on the side of the doctors, says the head doctor Mathieu: "Surgeons have volunteered to be nursing assistants" and "some elders have returned to the hospital to lend a hand".

- "Critical situation" -

In parallel with this intense mobilization, "the primary mission of the SSA, supporting the forces in operations, has never ceased," said chief physician Mathieu. "During the Covid, there were clashes in the Sahel, we went to get several war wounded."

During this period, despite health precautions, some Percy caregivers caught the virus. But the teams kept a cool head.

"The fact of being a carer on the front line, you have been trained for that. Psychologically, it protects you", underlines the doctor-resuscitator. "We already knew this during the attacks of November 13, 2015. Society was flabbergasted. But when we are in action, we see it better".

Today, Percy's resuscitation service no longer accepts any Covid patients. Put in sleep, the means deployed during the crisis are however ready to be implemented in the event of a second wave, "so as not to find ourselves in the same situation" as in March, says Diane.

SSA staff nevertheless continue to be in high demand. "One of my colleagues has just left for Guyana with the A400M" sent by the army to allow evacuations of patients, "another is on board the (helicopter carrier) Diksmuide and another has left for Gao" , in Mali, explains the chief doctor Mathieu.

"Caught between the reduction of its resources and the increase in its missions, the SSA is today in a critical situation", warn in a recent report senators Jean-Marie Bockel and Christine Prunaud. "With less than 15,000 people and 1.4 billion euros in budget, the SSA has lost 1,600 jobs in 5 years and at least 100 doctors are missing," they warn.

© 2020 AFP