The national professional committee for Anesthesia-Intensive care publishes a white paper in order to better manage the potential fourth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, and more generally, to improve access to critical care in France.
- 14,000 critical care beds are currently available in France (excluding specialties).
- 12,000 doctors are now competent in critical care in France, as are 11,000 nurses.
- Today, more than 80% of people admitted to intensive care experience a favorable outcome, and this figure is constantly increasing.
While the Delta variant raises fears of a fourth epidemic wave, doctors in intensive care units are formulating 14 proposals to improve access to critical care in France. “The university, scientific and trade union representatives of anesthetists-resuscitators gathered within the CNP-ARMPO are mobilizing and publishing a white paper”, can we read in a press release.
“Creation of a real care reserve”
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, many voices have been raised asking for an increase in the number of intensive care beds. For many, their insufficient number would be at the origin of all the evils. But the picture is more nuanced, experts say. “It is in fact the elasticity of the system which is the key element in the management of a health crisis. And this depends almost exclusively on the human resources who drive it, in particular nurses and caregivers”explains Dr. Franck Verdonk, vice-president of CNP-ARMPO.
The first wave of Covid-19 showed the ability of the critical care system to adapt. Resuscitation structures “ephemera” were thus opened to cope with the epidemic pressure. “It is now necessary to anticipate with the creation of a real care reserve, associating all the voluntary and competent professionals in critical care”, therefore considers Professor Pierre Albaladejo, president of CNP-ARMPO.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also made the French people very aware of critical care. Informing them, reassuring them and supporting them is also a priority for CNP-ARMPO, which proposes to set up a national information portal on critical care for all users.
Concrete proposals
The committee also makes the following proposals:
– Create a specific and recognized competency of critical care nurse and increase the number of nurses and orderlies in critical care units.
– Increase the number of psychologists and physiotherapists working in critical care units.
– Obtain an accurate and real-time census of the number of beds available in critical care units throughout the national territory.
– Strengthen the critical care sectors with a precise assessment, territory by territory, of the demand and needs for human resources.
– Have in each health establishment a critical care extension plan.
– Organize a medicalized and territorialized management of critical care, invested by professionals in the field, and facilitate cooperation between public and private critical care operators.
– Make the guide for setting up ephemeral resuscitation available to all establishments with critical care units.
-Proposing adapted and interoperable digital tools for the organization and training of the care reserve.
– Create a single portal for access to training for all healthcare professionals able to intervene in critical care, whatever their background.
– Create a ten-year plan for investment in research for critical care.
– Support conventional services in the use of early warning scores, to reduce the use of critical care units.
– Set up rapid critical care teams, capable of intervening in conventional units.
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