Health Minister Catherine Vautrin inaugurated on Saturday a mobile hospital a stone's throw from the Champs-Élysées that will allow patients to be cared for during the Olympic Games, including in the event of an exceptional health situation.
The white metal structure opens from a container, consisting of six boxes placed on blocks, about fifty metres from the Champs-Élysées roundabout. It offers a completely independent solution for treating minor spectator discomfort and emergency resuscitation situations.
Inside, a series of air-conditioned boxes can accommodate up to three patients in absolute emergencies, with two resuscitation boxes, and five patients in relative emergencies.
A battalion of Samo and Smur ambulances, some of which come from the provinces, stands outside to transport patients to Parisian hospitals if necessary.
The minister announced that this system, implemented by Samo, would allow “responding to emergencies that could occur when we have a number of visitors similar to what we have during” the Games. He mentioned both the care of “absolute emergency patients with the ability to resuscitate” and the care of “needs related to general medicine”.
Ms. Vautrin welcomed “the mobilization of all health services”, but not only “the working together of paramedics, hospital workers and police services”, as well as associations such as the Red Cross.
For his part, Professor Pierre Carli, Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Project at the Ministry of Health, pointed out that this is “the first deployment of a system of this size in central Paris.”
Installing them near public gathering places for the Olympic Games is one of the lessons learned from the 2015 attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis. “Proximity is very important, as is the speed of intervention and access to the hospital with the best specialist services around, within a short distance,” explained Professor Carli.
The mobile hospital, called SHELTER, is “a stop in the heart of where something serious could happen,” he added.
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