" I am an insurer by profession. And an insurer, it must provide for. "Before the parliamentary commission on the management of the crisis of the Covid-19, Xavier Bertrand, the author of the first plan of preparation of the country to the risk of pandemic influenza and who makes no secret of his presidential ambitions, has taken out the sulfateuse to criticize the action – or rather inaction – of the ministers who succeeded him.
taking up, first, notes, notices, and directives to support the chronology that led to the disappearance of strategic stocks of masks, in the heart of the questions at the time of parliamentary and public opinion. "I've heard a lot of things, of green and not ripe ", on the famous opinion of the High Council public health (HCSP) from July 2011 referred, on several occasions, as to the origin of a change of doctrine directing it not to renew the stocks.
False, supports the ex-minister, who was then the avenue de Segur, after the departure of Roselyne Bachelot in 2010. "It was a simple opinion on the strategy to adopt regarding stocks of masks FFP2 ", the most protective. "It is said at the time that they must be used in priority by the health professionals are the most exposed. We do not say there must be more or less, this is not a doctrine ! "Xavier Bertrand wants to proof that at the time of the outbreak of H1N1 occurs," there are 1.4 billion of masks in France. We never ran out of masks. "
Read also Coronavirus : the boondoggles of Touraine, the memory of Bachelot
"The shortage of masks was established the doctrine of public"
And for good reason, according to him : during his first spell at the ministry of Health, between 2005 and 2007, it is he who has asked for the constitution of stocks of masks, at the same time he was creating the Establishment of preparedness and response to health emergencies (Eprus), which will be absorbed by public Health France in 2016. "Why would I have done the opposite of what I had built ? "
It is thus well in 2013, under the government of François Hollande, he argues, that has been recognised a change in doctrine. To this date, the SGDSN (general Secretariat of defence and national security), a service attached to the Prime minister, publishes a "doctrine of the protection of workers" requiring professionals to equip themselves with masks FFP2. "The real question ", says Xavier Bertrand, " it is this : this new doctrine, how it has been known, how it was accompanied ? "
In 2013, the prime minister has wanted to return to the hand.
He suspected (strongly) that, in the absence of clear guidelines, the health professionals have never really become aware of the new obligation was made. "Who is the employer of the people hospital ? Hospitals, the State ? Who is the employer of the liberals ? Who pays for them ? Health insurance ? When we ask questions without answers, no one is covered... "
The non-renewal of the stocks of surgical masks, which were not affected by this new doctrine, can be explained, according to him, by the same root causes : "We wanted to make budget savings. "When he returns from avenue de Ségur after the departure of Roselyne Bachelot," the atmosphere had changed, " he says. The feeling dominated that, during the crisis of the H1N1 virus, "the ministry of Health had done too much "and that" it was too expensive. "Xavier Bertrand swear to have resisted the pressures to reduce the expense. But, " in 2013, the prime minister has wanted to return to the hand. I tell you frankly : I don't imagine a ministry of Health to produce such a doctrine, " he says.
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Marisol Touraine, who succeeded him from 2012 to 2017, therefore, would have yielded... As Agnès Buzyn, under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. "Somehow, the shortage of masks was established the doctrine in public, because the masks it is necessary to do it, and you have to buy them ", slice-t-it.
" More than pointing at the responsibility of one or the other, it is a whole system that is made to eat the head by these logical short-termist and these logical budget and accounting. The means, over the years, have not been there, " he laments. The Eprus, operational agency for crisis management, which he founded in 2006 on the model of the Fema u.s., will see their budgets reduced by 40 % between 2010 and 2015, before being dissolved in the new public Health Agency of France. "The fatal blow was the disappearance of the Eprus. [...] 2013 would have been able to hear if behind, there had been the will of the State to accompany and check that the new doctrine was applied. [...] Attention to the branches, that divide and dilute political responsibility. "
And it will strike anyone who goes to put hers in question : "I think it takes a new law programming in the field of health safety, he must find a Eprus independent. "In short : re-enable what he himself had put in place, neither more nor less. Because "it is better to have in mind the" worst case scenario ". And a good insurance... That goes without saying.
