Since the beginning of November, the Grand Est has welcomed 28 patients with Covid-19, including 17 from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, and transferred 3 to Germany. The trend has clearly reversed since the first wave of the epidemic, which hit the Grand Est with full force. Last spring, faced with an ever-increasing number of patients, hospitals in the Grand Est quickly reached saturation and were forced to transfer 318 patients to other regions and other countries.
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Thanks to inter-regional solidarity, the Grand Est was able to send more than 300 patients in regions spared by the first wave, such as Brittany, the Pays de la Loire, and New Aquitaine. Our European neighbors, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria and especially Germany, had received more than 160 patients from the Grand Est.
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The second wave affects the eastern part of France to a lesser extent
The latest transfer concerns 4 patients from the Dijon University Hospital, sent on November 26 to the Grand Est. As of November 25, the occupancy rate of intensive care beds in Burgundy-Franche-Comté was 120.7%, against 74.6% for the Grand Est. The situation is therefore quite complicated in the Burgundian and Franche-Comté hospitals. “We are approaching the limits and patient transfers are operated to relieve the most strained hospitals”, explained a few days ago the director general of the ARS of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Pierre Pribile.
The Grand Est welcomes 17 patients from the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, but also 14 from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, particularly affected during this second wave. A “beautiful symbol”, for Olivier Véran, “because this region evacuated many patients during the first wave”.
Transfers which “have nothing to compare” with those of the first wave
The Moselle has evacuated three patients to Germany, but this has nothing to compare with the mass transfers that the Grand Est benefited from during the first Covid wave. These are “anticipatory and case-by-case transfers”, explained François Braun, head of emergencies at the Metz-Thionville CHR. “These are local transfers,” he continues, “when you live in Saint-Avold, it is faster to get to the Saarbrücken hospital than to Metz or Nancy.”
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But will the Grand Est be able to continue welcoming patients if the wave continues? The mass transfers that the region benefited from last spring had been possible because the host regions had escaped the Covid surge. Today, the wave has reached all of France and the Grand Est is not spared. Fortunately, the trend is rather lower covid-19 figures, thanks to containment.
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