France is in midst of ‘second wave’ and hospitals ‘at tipping point’ warns A&E union chief

Hospitalisations of Covid patients have risen in France, notably in Marseille

Credit: ERIC GAILLARD/REUTERS

France’s hospitals have reached a “tipping point” in the fight against Covid-19 and the second wave “is here”, the head of the country’s biggest A&E union has warned.

The comments from François Braun, president of France’s Samu-Urgences union, came after the country registered 13,500 new daily infections on Saturday — a record since lockdown.  The proportion of people testing positive rose slightly to 5.6 per cent.

Last week also saw a rise in hospital deaths week on week for the first time since the end of lockdown in May.

More than 55 of France’s départements, or counties, are now deemed infection “red zones” and several towns have tightened restrictions, including earlier closing times for bars and restaurants.

“For the past ten days, we’ve witnesses a pretty significant rise in cases and this rise is constant from one day to the next,” Mr Braun told Le Parisien.

“The second wave is here and there is still time to prepare for it (in hospitals).”

French hospitals are at 'tipping point' a top A&E representative has warned

Credit: ERIC GAILLARD /REUTERS

While the rise was “not the tidal wave we saw in March” as intensive care units are in the main not yet saturated, “we can sense we have reached a tipping point,” he added, pointing out that hospitals in Paris and Montpellier have just reactivated their emergency Covid “white plans” to free up beds.

The worst could be avoided if people strictly respect social distancing and mask-wearing, but emergency services “expect a complicated month of October,” he warned. “We are anything but serene.”

He said that matters were made worse because some hospital departments were engaged in “turf wars” over whether to give up more beds to Covid patients as the current doctrine was to push on with pre-planned non-virus-related treatment regardless.

He warned that health workers who battled valiantly in March were once again “exhausted and demoralised” as it emerged hospitals were having trouble recruiting enough medical staff.

“I can’t understand why we haven’t learned the lessons in terms of hospital organisation from the first wave,” he said.

Less alarmist, Aurélien Rousseau, head of the Paris region health agency, said that while “tension levels have reached maximum levels”, “we will not see a remake of the first wave, rather a second season of the epidemic”.

On the plus side, patients were better treated, less often hospitalised or placed on ventilators in intensive care and for shorter times, he said. Hospitals will be sorely tested, however, because “there is no question of deprogramming non-Covid treatment”.

The infection rate in the French capital now stands at 160 per 100,000 inhabitants but the R level remains stable, he added.

Some 20 per cent of intensive care beds are now occupied by patients with Covid, he said.

Amid complaints of long waiting times and huge queues for tests, he said Paris would open a further 20 testing centres and mobile teams would pre-select those queuing with symptoms or who had come into direct contact with an infected person.