Coronavirus: twenty diagnostic centers will open in Seine-Saint-Denis

Avoid the spread of Covid-19 in the offices of city doctors, relieve emergency rooms in hospitals while detecting the most patients likely to have contracted the virus. In the coming days, consultation centers will multiply throughout Île-de-France. In all, the regional health agency (ARS) announces this week the opening of 165 outpatient centers which will welcome people who have contracted one or more symptoms.

Some have already been operational for several days, such as the one that was set up in a gymnasium in Lagny-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne) from March 23, and which was then one of the first of its kind in the region.

The best endowed department in the Parisian suburbs

With twenty centers, it is Seine-Saint-Denis which, after Paris (84), will be the best endowed department in the whole region. Most of these places will open later this week. Be careful, you will not be able to come spontaneously: you must first have obtained a prescription from the doctor and made an appointment.

“Only symptomatic patients who meet the criteria in force today (frail people, pregnant women, healthcare professionals, etc.) may be prescribed a diagnostic test by a doctor,” warns the ARS Île-de-France, which reminds that these tests are not carried out on site.

Moreover, to “avoid any influx” of inhabitants wishing to be screened without having contacted a doctor beforehand, she did not wish to make public the addresses of the places in question.

Volunteer doctors or nurses

While some are entirely specially designed to accommodate these centers, others are already existing structures, such as multidisciplinary health centers, or health centers, which will open up a space to accommodate patients.

Volunteer doctors and nurses will be on site to perform patient tests. This Monday, the chairman of the council of the medical order, Doctor Jean-Luc Fontenoy, wrote to all the practitioners in the department to present the device to them.

Locally, elected officials also contacted the doctors in their sector. This is the case for example in Aulnay, where the mayor (LR) Bruno Beschizza and the senator (LR) Annie Delmont-Koropoulis wrote a joint letter. “We are preparing the opening of the center in the Moulin-Neuf gymnasium,” said the senator on Monday afternoon, herself a general practitioner in Aulnay.

In Aulnay, masks are still missing

“It should open later this week,” she says. But we still lack material, in particular, masks, ”warns the one who has also written a letter on this subject to the Minister of Health. This Monday afternoon, she specified that already four practitioners had already come forward to offer their service. “The doctors will take turns every three hours, three times a day”, she continues, saluting the courage of her colleagues. “Our profession is on the front lines right now. “