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Coronavirus: could we build a hospital in ten days in France, like in China?


A demonstration of power. In China, a giant ballet of backhoe loaders and construction equipment gave birth, in just ten days, to a hospital with a capacity of 1000 beds in the Wuhan region, at the origin of the global spread of coronavirus .

This technical feat, broadcast continuously on the Internet like a spectacular show, allowed the building to be opened to the public on Monday. A second, even larger, was to follow this Wednesday. Or how to reassure the public about the efforts made by the Chinese authorities to stem this epidemic, which left 425 dead in the country among more than 20,400 cases of known contamination…

VIDEO. New Wuhan Hospital Welcomes First Patients

France, with its six diagnosed patients, none of whom died, is of course largely spared compared to Beijing. Even so, the question is tempting. Would we, here too, be able to build such an infrastructure in ten days, if we faced a catastrophic health situation?

Obligations lifted in the event of a “pressing emergency”

“French law is well equipped for this kind of situation,” first asks Me Pierre-Yves Fouré, a lawyer with the firm Houdart & Associés, dedicated to the health sectors. To call on a private company, the State is certainly supposed to place a call for tenders and put in competition different companies, a time-consuming process which the Chinese authorities can dispense with.

But the code of public procurement specifies that an “imperative emergency”, due to “external circumstances”, can allow the French State to override. “In a way, the urgency has priority over the usual rules,” said the lawyer.

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