Four months before the opening of the Olympic Games, Parisian hospitals are getting organized. Nearly 15 million visitors are expected in the capital according to official estimates. Among them, 14,500 athletes during the Olympic Games and nearly 9,000 during the Paralympics.
If these figures translate into 150 additional daily emergency visits, according to the management of Paris Public Hospital Assistance (AP-HP), do not panic. The risk of traffic jam is low according to the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) which estimated that additional hospital activity should not exceed 4%. Especially since hospitals have been organizing themselves for many months to manage the athletes’ care pathway.
A temporary polyclinic
To treat the 15,000 expected athletes, a temporary “polyclinic” was set up within the Olympic village, straddling the municipalities of Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine and L’Ile-Saint-Denis (Seine). -St Denis). It will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the Games period. This structure, managed by the AP-HP and financed by the Olympic organizing committee, is designed for 700 daily consultations.
It is not an emergency service but an “offering of first aid and care not scheduled or by appointment,” explained the AP-HP to 20 minutes. Its use will be reserved for athletes and their companions in the village, as well as members of international delegations. Within this polyclinic, volunteer French and international caregivers will carry out specialized consultations, particularly in sports medicine, orthopedic surgery, gynecology, cardiology and ophthalmology. A pharmacy, a dental office and a physiotherapy and physiology massage service will also be present on site.
Bichat hospital for serious care
Athletes requiring hospital care will be cared for at the Bichat AP-HP hospital. In Paris, three “referent” establishments will take care of professionals participating in the Games. The Bichat hospital will take care of the heavy care of athletes, Avicenna of journalists and Pompidou of the “Olympic family”.
Reinforcements are also planned in the emergency room, the Samu and in 80 of the 800 AP-HP services, particularly in intensive care and orthopedic and digestive surgery. Additional beds will be opened there. According to parliamentary work, more than 300 emergency workers will also be mobilized on Olympic sites at the national level.
Bonuses for caregivers on deck
To encourage staff to work this summer, the AP-HP is offering a bonus for volunteer caregivers ranging from 800 to 2,500 euros gross per week depending on the employment category. In exchange, they will have to work 35 hours over the period and postpone one of their usual three consecutive weeks of summer vacation.
“Insufficient” and “discriminatory” amounts for the CGT, FO, CFTC and UNSA unions who are demanding in a petition “2,000 euros for all” staff, “exhausted” by a succession of epidemics and ultra-tense summers.