In its meeting of 14 July, on the new cases of Covid-19, Emmanuel Macron, has conceded : “It’s reaccelerates. We have signs that it’s starts a little. “In order to avoid the contamination chain, and prevent the increase in the number of patients, fast access to diagnostic tests is one of the essential links. Except that, on this side, it does not “reaccelerates” not really, reacts Catherine Simonin, representative of France Assos Health and vice-president of the League against cancer.
At the time of the déconfinement, the government had announced a capacity of 700 000 tests weekly if necessary. As always, in his interview, the president of the Republic has promised to further simplify the access to the tests, while reprécisant that” we have the capacity, “but that” the demand is not there “. By the voice of Catherine Simonin, the group of associations of patients, worries him, to see if to lengthen the time to complete a test and the length of queues in front of some laboratories. It calls on the executive to put in place “urgent” from the” easy access ” to the PCR tests.
The Point : The waiting time to obtain a diagnostic test of the Covid-19 is there a concern ?
Catherine Simonin : Make the test looks like still too often an obstacle course for patients ! Between the upsurge of cases, the resumption of operations, which require a detection of the Covid-19 before going to the block, or going on vacation to countries who require the result of a test, it is very tight in some areas, such as in the Île-de-France and Marseille. This is not acceptable, then the system should already be well established. The route is too long and too complex.
What are the steps to follow if you feel you have any symptoms or fears of having crossed an infected person ?
We should begin by getting an appointment with her doctor for a prescription. Nothing that this first step may already take several days. Then, it should be getting an appointment in a lab for a nasal swab. Again, depending on cities or regions, there is a waiting period, which can range from a few days to a week before finally being able to achieve his test. In addition, if the first test is negative, it is sometimes asked the patient to return a few days later to make a second which will confirm or refuse the result. In summary, it must be really very motivated… or already sick to follow the course through to the end. With these waiting times are linked together, how many contacts an infected person will contaminate the time to find out that it is, itself, positive ?
Read also Covid-19 : the government’s plan to avoid a reconfinement
do you See that the rows of patients lie in front of the laboratories ?
These are actually eyewitness testimonies that we receive from our members, even if we do not have precise figures. The most problematic in these files, is that all the patients who come to test for the Covid-19 are mixed, the symptomatic and the other. It is not permissible to let people, especially if they are frail, elderly or with a chronic disease – to take the risk of becoming infected while they are queuing to get tested simply because they are simple cases of contact or that they need a test before an operation ! It is necessary therefore to immediately provide a specific time, or different inputs to the laboratories to avoid these risk situations.
What other priorities point you ?
If one wants patients to become real actors in the control of the epidemic, it is necessary to make their lives easier ! The need for a prescription or a “good” sent by the regional agency of health is not enough to handle all the cases. We ask, therefore, that systems of ” drive testing “, with a queue in a car and a tent to the levy, are quickly put in place and more widely in the territory. Everyone can go and do the test in doubt. This is already the case in Mayenne, where the number of cases has increased alarmingly in recent weeks. But it would have to be provide elsewhere, for example in Île-de-France. The aim is to persuade all of us of the security, the interest, the ease of making an appointment to get tested. Including when one has only very mild symptoms. Finally, we must leave it to the organisations that work in contact with the people most insecure, those that are outside the classic circuit, the possibility of putting in place structures of tests open to all.
