As the new year approaches, Why Doctor invites you to take stock of twelve months of the pandemic, with our new series: “Covid-19: what assessment?” Today, focus on reception capacities in French health establishments.
- Currently, 17,405 people are hospitalized with a coronavirus infection.
- As of December 28, 66.3% of critical care beds were occupied by patients with Covid-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, French hospitals have been under pressure. During the various epidemic waves, health professionals gradually saw more and more intensive care beds occupied by patients with Covid-19. Faced with the increase in hospitalizations and the lack of practitioners, exhausted by the epidemic, they had to deprogram several examinations and operations deemed “non-urgent” to free up beds and staff.
In a statement published on March 18 by the National Professional Council for Intensive Resuscitation Medicine, intensive care physicians called for an increase in human resources and resuscitation capacities. “With just over 5,000 intensive care beds, i.e. 7 beds per 100,000 inhabitants, France is understaffed. Each year during the winter period conducive to epidemics such as the flu, the occupancy rate of intensive care beds already fluctuates between 90 % and 100% in many regions. A rate that does not allow us to deal with a health crisis situation”, detailed the CNP-MIR.
“20%” of hospital beds closed
A few months after this claim made by health professionals, a flash survey led by the president of the Scientific Council Jean-François Delfraissy revealed a new figure concerning bed closures in health establishments. Despite “an already significant and increasing use of overtime and temporary work”, 20% of hospital beds, i.e. one in five, have been closed, in all care sectors, for lack of carers.
Faced with this alarming data, the Minister of Health ordered an investigation to determine the exact number of closed beds. “The figure of 20%, I would tend, like that, to dispute it. And in any case because I deeply love science and that before expressing myself, I check not to tell anyone what, I asked to have the most exhaustive study possible on the state of closure” of the beds, declared Olivier Véran on October 27, during a hearing at the National Assembly on the finance bill for 2022.
“A 2% drop” in beds compared to 2019
The results of the ministerial survey, carried out by the Directorate General for Health Care (DGOS), were published on December 16 and relayed by The world. The latter, which compares the number of beds from one year to the next, would neither confirm nor invalidate the figure from Jean-François Delfraissy’s survey.
According to the study, the number of hospital beds would have fallen by 2% in October compared to the end of 2019, that is to say just before the emergence of the coronavirus. Surgery is one of the sectors most affected by this decrease. On the other hand, a progression of ambulatory capacities was observed.
“We do not deny the difficulties of certain services, in particular in hospitals combining turnover, absenteeism and very strong deployment of staff in critical care. But there is no overall saturation”, said the DGOS. She specified that this information was collected before the increase in hospitalizations caused by the fifth wave and the reactivation of the white plan in several health establishments.
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