“The Minister of Health does not have so many means around him to signal awareness of the problem, he did not have that much choice”, estimates Wednesday, November 9 on franceinfo Professor Olivier Brissaud, member of the Inter-Hospital Collective and head of the pediatric intensive care unit at the Bordeaux University Hospital. The triggering of the national emergency plan was announced by the Minister of Health as the bronchiolitis epidemic hits hospitals.
franceinfo: Will the triggering of this national emergency plan relieve you or will it not change much for you immediately?
Olivier Brissaud: All hospital services are already organized even before the white plans to prepare for this type of seasonal epidemic. We are already in a cooperative process. What the white plan allows to do is to organize, to structure – under the aegis of the ARS and the directions of hospitals – these organizations. So you have to take that as something positive.
The real concern of caregivers is to say to themselves that this gives authorization to mobilize staff who would be on vacation, but I sincerely believe that all hospital management and ARS have understood the immense hardship today care staff today and will do everything possible to avoid bringing them back from vacation.
Will the implementation of these white plans allow you to have additional means against this epidemic of bronchiolitis?
The Minister of Health does not have so many means around him to signify awareness of the problem, he did not have that much choice. What is almost shocking is to say to ourselves – when we are faced with an epidemic of bronchiolitis that we have had every year for years – that this year we have an implementation of the Organization of the response of the health system in exceptional health situations [dispositif Orsan].
This drawing of the device and this triggering of white planes in different hospitals, I would rather identify it as white planes intended for the public hospital or pediatrics and not so much for bronchiolitis itself. So will we have additional resources? We cannot, in an extreme emergency, put in place means that will make it possible to bring back health personnel.
What would be the solution according to you?
What all paediatricians aspire to today is to rethink the healthcare system in general in public hospitals, specifically for paediatrics. The work is colossal because we don’t have the roadmap and because we will have to work with the public hospital in a global way, paediatrics, clinics, general practitioners, liberals… is huge. I think something needs to be done in two stages: the emergency now and triggering the white plans, but a second stage is needed – the substantive work – with these pediatric foundations which must start quickly.
What is the current situation in Bordeaux where you work?
In Bordeaux, the situation is not critical but we have a large influx of patients. For example, out of all the critical care resuscitation beds and pediatric continuous monitoring we have 20 beds and currently there are 16 children who are children with bronchiolitis.