With the increase in patients infected with coronavirus in Italy and France goes the possibility of saturating the special hospital confinement facilities ready to receive them in those countries.
One of the strategies for coping with a potential epidemic is to try to slow down the pace of infections so that quality hospital care and confinement can be provided in each case. But the number of infections in neighbouring countries is increasing.
So far Monaco has been relying on Princess Grace Hospital to confine and receive suspected cases while expert testing is done by agreement with French medical authorities in Marseilles. Cases that are confirmed positive are then transferred from Monaco for expert hospital care in the Pasteur hospital in Nice. All this has been working as planned.
The challenge that is happening now is that the facilities in France are coming under pressure and so the protocol that governs transferring patients from Monaco to Nice in France may have to be revised.
Princess Grace Hospital is already preparing for this by creating an increased roster of health professionals including doctors at Princess Grace. The goal is to be able to care for cases in Monaco as Pasteur specialized hospital containment in Nice potentially becomes saturated and unable to accept more cases.
As many doctors and health professionals in Monaco as are able and willing are being canvassed among the over 200 qualified. Volunteers among them are getting ready to prepare to help out at Princess Grace. The first ones are already taking turns in the short-term specialized unit in Monaco.
It is reported that Doctor Christophe Robino, head of department at the CHPG has confirmed that doctors will participate in rotation to ensure monitoring and thus identify cases.
This is all careful planning by Monaco in advance for the month ahead just in case. At the moment the protocol with France is still in place with Pasteur hospital providing care for any Monaco patients that test positive for coronavirus.
Planning also includes preparing for the possibility that in France that some cases instead of being initially confined in hospital could be confined at home while tests are made. This makes common sense rather than saturating specialized hospital facilities. In Monaco all this is being carefully anticipated in advance.
Wisely, health professionals and doctors are being approached for volunteers to strengthen the teams at Princess Grace Hospital to welcome, diagnose and treat patients. This is all in case France needs to reserve its own facilities to treat an increasing number of local French patients.
Two new patients await their results
Earlier this week the Princely government announced that all the samples taken on the Monday in Monaco are negative.
However, firefighters treated two new patients on Tuesday and so in its press release, also reported on in the French press, the Monegasque government specifies that, on Tuesday, samples were taken from two people taken care of by the firefighters of Monaco.
The results of those tests are awaited. HelloMonaco is following up on those results.
Read also about the first person test positive for coronavirus in Monaco here. It was at Slammer’s bar where Monaco’s first diagnosed carrier of Coronavirus, a 28 year old, spent fun time with his 23 year old girlfriend from Eze on February 23rd.
