How is the crisis developing in the Alpes-Maritimes?
The epidemic situation is clearly improving. On Friday, we did not register any new Covid-19 positive cases out of the 83 screenings carried out. In the same way, the number of patients hospitalized in intensive care decreases. Eighteen patients are currently being treated in critical care units. There are seventeen in the other establishments in the department and in Monaco. For its part, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) observes a still increasing trend in the region, but this is not true in the Alpes-Maritimes where 175 Covid-19 patients are currently treated in hospitals and clinics.
In addition, intra-hospital contamination was contained. In the infectious diseases department of Dr Véronique Mondain at the Nice University Hospital, there was no contamination of the caregivers vis-à-vis the patients. The protective measures put in place in all of the services have been shown to be effective.
Has the game been won?
The epidemic is still there. The effects of confinement are real. This allowed us to control the hospital tension. It is reasonable to hope that the gradual lifting of containment will not cause a greater wave than the first shock that we took, thanks in particular to compliance with the barrier measures.
“STAY HOME DOES NOT WANT TO SAY DON’T TAKE CARE “
How are you preparing for this second wave?
We started talking to the ARS on Friday to discuss the departmental critical care plan. We will keep around sixty resuscitation beds in anticipation of a second wave of the epidemic. In this crisis, the hospital structures showed that they had been able to organize themselves. Hospitals and clinics have developed agile organizations that have adapted to needs.
So can we be reasonably optimistic?
We can be a little less worried. However, the care of patients outside Covid-19 worries me. The slogan “Stay at home” is still valid, but it should not be interpreted as: “Do not treat yourself”. Far too many patients have deserted medical offices, hospitals and clinics for fear of the Covid-19. We note cases of myocardial infarction detected too late and an unusually high rate of amputations for vascular diseases. For understandable reasons, colonoscopy rates have never been lower while March was the month for colon cancer screening. This questions.
What do you say to these people who don’t treat themselves?
Patients take too long to reconnect with their treating physician. All chronically ill people should approach their doctor without delay and without fear. Teleconsultation is preferred, but we can also organize risk-free consultations at the hospital while respecting barrier measures and social distancing.
“WE MUST LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE COVID-19”
How do you approach the May 11 deadline and the prospect of progressive deconfinement?
The hospital must now integrate Covid-19 into its organizations on a sustainable basis. We have to learn to live with the Covid-19. This epidemic will last. We must appropriate this disease in everyday life, at the hospital level as well as in the population.
Can the hospital already learn from this crisis?
Things will change in the hospital. The health system will have to be overhauled in its entirety. We cannot say that we are the best in the world when we are among the four countries with the highest death rates and that, on the international care market, France is only fourteenth behind Taiwan and Singapore. Our system has lived, we will have to keep this nugget of access to healthcare for all and decline everything else around. It will take unprecedented political courage, because we will look for the culprits first instead of doing this urgent introspection. But we will have a unique opportunity to think about new models. There will be a before and an after for the public hospital in France.
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