On the WhatsApp threads of doctors and hospital staff, messages alerting the situation in hospitals in the Grand Est region circulated throughout the day from Sunday March 15, describing “Hell” in saturated intensive care units.
Over the course of a weekend, the situation changed in France. Sunday, more than 400 people were hospitalized in serious condition (against 300 the day before), when Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the passage to “stage 3” of the Covid-19 epidemic. In the Grand Est region, the most affected in France, hospitals are already teetering.
The Haut-Rhin concentrates concerns. “We are reaching saturation, we have twenty-five people on ventilation in Colmar”, says Jean-François Cerfon, president of the departmental council of the Order of physicians.
“We have no more margin, we are just on the go”
In this city’s hospital, all non-emergency operations have been deprogrammed, additional beds have been opened, but this is not enough: “We have no more room, we are just on the go, it’s a permanent puzzle to find beds”, explains the anesthetist, who fears “Three very hard weeks”. A Strasbourg emergency doctor confirms that the situation is starting to become dangerously tense: “It is a permanent reorganization because we do not have enough beds in intensive care. We have opened new beds “Covid” but they’re already full. ”
The collective Inter-hospital trade union movement published, on Sunday afternoon, a testimony reporting in Colmar of a lack of ventilators intended for the intubation of patients in respiratory distress, obliging to “Limit patients on intubation”. “Everything is done not to arrive at this choice”, assures Jean Sibilia, dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Strasbourg.
The medical faculty mobilized its students, internal or external, on a voluntary basis, to come and help in the CHUs. City doctors also closed their offices to lend a hand. Welcome help so much “The situation is dramatic”.
In Strasbourg, the resuscitation capacity is around 100 beds: they are all occupied, half of which are Covid-19 cases. This capacity will be increased to 200 beds. ” We’re going to have a crash test next week “, believes Jean Sibilia. Because, he says, “We are not yet at the peak of the epidemic peak”. The means, in particular masks, are still relatively available, at least in dedicated services, but “If the rise continues, we will be in a difficult situation”.
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