Posted on Jan 11, 2021 7:19 PMUpdated Jan 13, 2021, 7:29 AM
It is now imminent. As of Thursday, those over 75 will be able to register online, with a view to having their first dose of Covid vaccine injected, in one of the 700 centers which are due to open by the end of the month. This potential flow of at least 5 million people should really take off the number of vaccinated, which just exceeded the threshold of 100,000 on Sunday.
Until now, the government had relied on the extension to caregivers over 50 years or sick to raise the statistics. The operation worked, because hospitals have everything at hand: vaccines, vaccinators, vaccinated. Hospital practitioners also have the flexibility to prick immunocompromised patients, or distribute the famous “sixth dose” from the bottle, whose existence only became official on Friday.
On the nursing home side too, some have shown ingenuity to hasten the course of the vaccination campaign. In the Paris region, part of the flow intended for hospitals was diverted to these establishments. About a hundred of them thus obtained their first doses, half more than expected. But in the region, 600 establishments are still waiting.
150 centers already affiliated with Doctolib
To manage reservations for the general public, three private providers have been selected: Doctolib, the dominant player on the French market, with a strong presence in hospitals; Maiia, a subsidiary of Cegedim, and the start-up Keldoc. “We developed our module for vaccination two months ago. We have already made tens of thousands of appointments in Germany, where we started on December 27 on behalf of Berlin. We have also started to work with 150 vaccination centers in France for health professionals ”, says Stanislas Niox-Chateau, the founder of Doctolib.
Patients can make an appointment for both doses simultaneously. They will receive a reminder SMS, and a post-vaccination follow-up email. The doses will be distributed among the departments; the regional health agency is responsible for allocating them on a case-by-case basis to approved vaccination centers. The latter will take out a subscription with one of the three providers, which will be reimbursed by Public Health France. “We will help them manage the doses so that none are lost”, Assure Stanislas niox-Chateau.
No real shortage of needles at this stage
Obviously, this complex watchmaking, with multiple flows and countless players, can suffer from failures. In recent days, several vaccinators have expressed concern about a potential shortage of needles and syringes. “Le Monde” cites the example of the Montauban hospital, where the number of needles delivered by Public Health France is “Almost three times lower” the number of doses.
At the Ministry of Health, we deny any risk of shortage: 1.1 million needles were intended for nursing homes, more than 600,000 for pivotal vaccination hospitals, and Public Health France “Is in the process of receiving major deliveries, of several million syringes of different sizes”, adding to 3 million needles in stock. “Hospitals just have to buy more needles than usual, we will reimburse them”, sweeps a source in the administration of Health.
As for the liberal pharmacists, the president of the FSPF union, Philippe Besset, confirms that there is no concern at this stage: “Each Ehpad receives a box with 100 16mm needles, 100 25mm needles, 100 40mm needles, plus physiological serum to reconstitute the powder solution, and syringes. That’s enough for a large Ehpad with 100 beds ”, he notes. Pharmacies in the Grand Est explained to him that they had received too many needles.
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