By Camille Leclercq

Written on
01/26/2021

• In winter, a surplus of patients in hospitals

Take the 2018-2019 season. Entirely spared by the virus, the association of mountain doctors then identified 143,112 injured, 5% of whom were transferred to hospital. In addition to these accidents, the significant increase in the population is automatically reflected in a sharp increase in pathologies which can decompensate, such as heart attacks or even strokes… which also require hospital treatment.

• Services already tested by the epidemic

The occupancy rate of intensive care beds by patients with severe forms of Covid-19 is not worrying in the Hautes-Pyrénées. But other services are saturated in the Hautes-Alpes where this rate reaches 113%, or even 100% in the Jura. The capacities of several Savoy hospitals are also clearly exceeded … This means that he remains little or even no room for the management of pathologies other than Covid requiring hospitalization in intensive care.

• Significant disparities at the local level

For hospitals located in valleys that do not have an intensive care unit, we are now clearly witnessing a drop in attendance. At the Maurienne Valley Hospital Center, there were 1,400 emergency visits in December 2019, before the pandemic, against 750 in December 2020.
But in Chambéry, the tension remains high, especially in intensive care. Usually the service has only 20 beds and currently it accommodates 31 patients including 12 for the Covid. The operating room staff are always requisitioned to take care of them and the hospital center has 4,000 interventions late...

• Doctors almost inactive in the station

With the disappearance of skiers, the 300 general practitioners who work in resorts find themselves in “technical unemployment”. Some even have to close their practice to make up for this inactivity. Not all of them want an influx of patients and an increase in contamination, all are united, but all also want to see tourists return to the resorts as soon as possible …