Faced with the second wave of Covid-19, doctors fear that they will soon have to sort out patients who may or may not be in intensive care.
"I am afraid that we will be forced to make choices that will pose problems", worries Jean-Michel Constantin, of Pitié-Salpêtrière, on Europe 1 on Friday.
The toll of the Covid-19 epidemic exceeded 36,000 deaths in France on Thursday, with 250 deaths in the last 24 hours and 400 new admissions to intensive care.
In these services, the number of patients now stands at nearly 3,200.
Faced with the magnitude of this second wave, doctors fear having to make very quickly questionable choices from an ethical point of view.
"Unfortunately, given the dynamics of the epidemic, for the next two to three weeks, that is to say before we have the beneficial effect of containment, I am afraid that we will have to at a time to make choices that will pose problems on the ethical, societal and human levels ", worries for example Jean-Michel Constantin, head of the intensive care unit at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, Friday on Europe 1 .
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"Choose the patients who will benefit from resuscitation"
"The risk is that we will have to be forced to choose the patients who will benefit from resuscitation," cowardly, more clearly, the caregiver.
During the first wave, only two regions had been very strongly affected, the Île-de-France and the Grand Est.
They had thus been able to benefit from reinforcements from other regions.
This time, while the epidemic is hitting the entire territory, the risk of saturation of the hospital system is therefore even greater.
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The fact remains that the hospital staff will of course do everything to avoid dramatic choices.
First of all, the hospitals will reopen the beds closed for lack of staff.
There are said to be around 400 in the country.
Then, hospitals will deprogram non-emergency operations, which has already started in almost all regions.
The time to push the walls will come later, by transforming a pediatric or surgical department into intensive care for example.
Then the recall of the health reserve, with retired doctors and medical students.
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The option of army support
Last option considered: army support for hospitals.
As in the first wave, it could set up field hospitals.
This had notably been the case in Mulhouse.
The army is ready.
It is now up to the government to demand its support in the regions where it will be necessary.