Since Wednesday, a medical regiment from the Army has been deployed alongside the fire service to assist patients in the Paris region.
According to our colleagues at the Parisian, the Army will be lending a hand to the Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP) from this Wednesday. Twenty-five soldiers, members of the medical regiment based at La Valbonne barracks (Ain), will be welcomed at the BSPP headquarters in the capital’s 17th arrondissement and will take up their posts immediately.
They will assist the fire service in their work with Covid-19 patients, whether this involves call-outs to patients’ homes or transporting patients to hospitals in the Île-de-France region. These seasoned military personnel, who possess medical expertise, are routinely deployed abroad on overseas operations, wherever French soldiers are sent.
15 military personnel posted to Seine-Saint-Denis
They receive the same level of training as the BSPP firefighters who operate the casualty evacuation vehicles.
The largest contingent, comprising fifteen people, will be deployed to Seine-Saint-Denis. “This is the department where demand is highest,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Claire Boët.
Since the end of last week, the BSPP has been dealing with a rise in the number of call-outs in the Paris region, which are set to increase steadily until the peak of the outbreak, forecast for the end of the week.
The number of daily Covid-19-related call-outs has recently risen from 400 to 500. “Since the start of lockdown, we’ve carried out 6,000 call-outs,” adds Lieutenant-Colonel Claire Boët. These missions, carried out by the Paris Fire Brigade, very often take the pressure off the SAMU teams.