return of mandatory mask to La Rochelle University Hospital

Prevention is better than cure, as the saying goes. At the La Rochelle hospital, the mask is back in the hospital center. At a time of winter epidemics, the choice is made by management and generally well understood by patients.

October, November… the months of all evils. The start of bronchiolitis, flu and covid. No epidemic in the department, but the number of Covid cases has doubled in one week.

So, at La Rochelle University Hospital, it was decided that it was better to be safe than sorry by making wearing a mask compulsory.

“It’s our decision, no one imposed it on us,” explains Dr. Mariam Roncato-Saberan, head of the infectious diseases unit at La Rochelle Hospital.

Our architecture means that patients are more at risk here.

Dr. Mariam Roncato-Saberan

Head of the infectious diseases unit at La Rochelle Hospital

To protect patients, nothing is better than the (old) good mask method. A protection that patients and visitors had become accustomed to a few years ago, but also quickly forgot.

So sometimes, a sting -reminder- doesn’t hurt.

“We need to get back into good habitssmiles the wife of a patient. Of course there is a little weariness, but we adapt, it is a guarantee against illness, security for our loved ones and for us, because at a certain age, we must protect ourselves.”

If some people complain when they arrive at reception, the situation is intended to be calm. “ People aren’t necessarily aware, we don’t come to the hospital every dayrelative Ghislaine Chauvet, reception agent. The goal is to inform them that it is mandatory again.”

Even if they sometimes have difficulty breathing, patients and visitors generally seem to understand the measurement well.

Masks and barrier gestures should be required all winter in La Rochelle and St-Martin de Ré.