Brigitte Virey, president of the National Union of French Pediatricians, is a liberal pediatrician in Dijon. It warns of the increase in the number of children affected by bronchiolitis.
The saturation of pediatric services, in the midst of an epidemic of bronchiolitis, is at the heart of the public debate. What about pediatricians’ offices? How are they handling the epidemic?
Our pediatric practices are also in a situation of saturation. For nearly a month, the demand for unscheduled consultations has increased sharply. I gave a sounding call to colleagues a fortnight ago, and many of them were already talking about a dozen consultations of this type being added to their schedule daily. This is like this every day. And the trend is expected to increase further through December.
We are talking, at the hospital, of hospitalizations at the highest level for ten years. Do you have the feeling, in town, of also being confronted with an unprecedented situation?
It is the precocity of the epidemic that took us by surprise, and the fact that it affects many more toddlers, babies under 3 months old, than usual.
We have not yet reached the epidemic peak. Several viruses are at work, first of all the rhinoviruses, classics of the season, which can cause bronchiolitis in the youngest. The Covid-19 then, which seems, however, at this stage, little in question. Finally, the respiratory syncytial virus which is progressing. There is a good risk of finding ourselves, within a fortnight, in an unequaled situation.
You are one of the 7,000 signatories of a open letter questioning Emmanuel Macron on the untenable situation in the pediatric services… Are you, in town, required to sort out the patients?
The issue of deprogramming non-urgent care is complicated. What care is not “urgent”? Appointments with infants that we see at regular intervals to vaccinate them cannot be rescheduled. Those taken with 3-4 year old children may not be within a fortnight, but it is risky to shift them too long. And then there are all the children with chronic diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders, who are suffering: these consultations, which are long, cannot be moved either.
If a sorting is necessary, it is the older children, beyond 6 years, whose arrival is postponed. The same ones who have already suffered from the health crisis, who may have anxiety disorders…
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