During the first epidemic wave linked to covid-19, private clinics had been relegated to the background. Today, they are more requisitioned in the management of the epidemic.
Private clinics to the aid of the public hospital
At a time when public hospitals are struggling to contain the influx of patients infected with Covid-19, a user, figure in yellow vests, denounces in a video that “115,000 beds are free in private clinics while citizens die and are deprogrammed”. However, this statement is totally false: no, private clinics are not underutilized in the context of this second epidemic wave. Contacted by LCI, the Federation of Private Hospitalization explains that “The 115,000 beds correspond to all the hospital places in private clinics”, specifying that these are not resuscitation places and that they are not empty. In other words, private clinics are invested in this second wave and Lamine Gharbi, president of the FHP, confirmed it ten days ago on the LCI set: “We take care of 30% of # COVID19 patients across the country. We are ready, we are present.”
Private clinics “take their share” of the second wave
This is what AFP confirms: “private clinics are now better integrated into the distribution of patients, as in the Yvelines, where experienced caregivers face the same staffing problems as in the public”. At Private Hospital Center of Europe, at Port-Marly in Yvelines, Caroline Hemery, 41, health manager of the service, told AFP: “At the end of October, it was necessary to“ deprogram a third of the activity of the operating theaters, only to go from 5 to 8 intensive care beds ”. For the time being, all the resuscitation beds are occupied in this hospital, including four by Covid patients. Yet the private hospital sector is also under strain. Elisabeth Bidnic-Treyer, 53, director of the establishment, is counting on the re-containment in force since last week to “restrict the influx of patients” in order to “hold out over time, provided that we have staff” . A complex situation to manage for caregivers. At Port-Marly, the young nurse Gaëlle Carpentier “added 36 hours, or three more days this month”, despite the “somewhat demoralizing” context of the “not really respected” re-containment.
