Didier Jaffre, director of ARS Occitanie, takes stock of the flu epidemic and the situation in hospitals. He invites the population to be vaccinated to limit the effects of the virus.
Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON
Is the flu epidemic more complex to manage this winter?
More complex, no. What we see, however, is that there are indeed a huge number of patients affected by the flu with a virus that is perhaps a little more contagious, which leads to a significant number of people going to hospitals. Activity, rather calm during the holidays, intensified during the first days of January. Many families have come together and due to a very low vaccination rate, the most fragile, particularly the elderly, are in extremely fragile health, which requires their hospitalization.
Hospitals have initiated adaptation plans, will this be enough?
Very few white plans have been triggered at this time in our region. There is the Alès establishment, in the Gard, the Toulouse University Hospital which has activated its level 1… In fact, we asked the establishments to all be in tension, in order to participate collectively in the care of patients and absorb the increase in activity. But this does not mean that the system is in difficulty. I also asked for solidarity from the public sector, so that everyone works hand in hand, the objective being to decongest emergency services and free up sufficient numbers of medicine and intensive care beds to be able to hospitalize patients when they need it. We will also mobilize the home hospitalization sector because a large number of people can be cared for at home.
Unions believe that the private sector is not playing the game…
On the contrary, I think, and they demonstrated it during the Covid crisis, that these establishments also contribute to patient care. We are in a region where many have emergency services, some have also been saturated themselves in recent days
The epidemic peak has not been reached. Are you worried?
We are extremely vigilant, especially on weekends when it is generally more complicated. It is also to overcome this milestone that I asked establishments today to free up beds in order to avoid saturation of the system. However, it will of course hold up, I know I can count on the quality of our teams and their commitment. However, everyone can act to reduce tension and this includes vaccination.
Is this a call you are making?
Of course. There is always time to get vaccinated, even if you are in good health, to protect yourself, to protect others and, ultimately, to protect the health system. It’s a sequence. This call must be heard all the more by the most vulnerable, elderly people, immunocompromised people, pregnant women, whose vaccination coverage rate in the region barely reaches 50% when it should be 100%. Fortunately, this rate is better in nursing homes, even if we can still improve it. Healthcare staff, vaccinated on average at 20% last year, must also set an example. Access to the vaccine is easy, there is no shortage, so there is no need to hesitate.
