Wearing a surgical mask in hospitals and clinics in Toulouse is no longer compulsory, left to the discretion of the health services. The measure divides among professionals.
The beginning of the end of the surgical mask in the public space? The one everyone was tearing away from during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was missing in all health services, awakening the imagination of confined people who then had time to make personalized masks.
We indeed see few users of public transport wearing the mask, in public space, and it is now the standard in force in public hospitals and private clinics in Toulouse. Except in departments dealing with serious pathologies, cancerology, oncology, etc. Good or bad, however, wonder the health professionals who seem to be divided on the subject.
Fewer cases of Covid…
But in Toulouse, the establishments have decided. The clinics of the Ramsay health group – of the Union and the Marquisate – decreed for May 5 “the cessation of the systematic wearing of the surgical mask”.
The reason given is “the decrease in the incidence of infections from Covid-19, influenza, bronchiolitis and recommendations […] of the Ramsay Group. Clearly, the mask is no longer compulsory in the enclosures of the clinics, it is specified, during the care of patients in consultations. There are bound to be exceptions: for healthcare professionals, patients and visitors to patients “in the event of symptoms suggestive of ENT or respiratory infections. »
Ditto for the establishments of the Toulouse University Hospital
In the establishments of the Toulouse University Hospital, the mask is no longer compulsory since March 23. According to the same criteria set out by the clinics. “This rule applies to everyone (patients, accompanying persons, visitors, volunteers and staff), with the exception of the following cases: in the event of a respiratory and/or ENT clinical sign (cough, runny nose, sore throat) , with or without fever, standard precautions must be strictly applied with: wearing a surgical mask and hand hygiene reinforced with hydroalcoholic solution”, assures the university hospital center.
The media doctor Jérôme Marty, general practitioner based in Fronton (31) and who very early campaigned for the wearing of the mask, is divided on the decision of hospitals and clinics. In March 2020, he posted videos on the internet explaining “how the virus was transmitted, why masks were needed, and FFP2s for caregivers”.
“It is a relaxation of the care services”
“It’s a relaxation in the care services,” he explains. Especially since we have no viral data, people no longer test themselves and we no longer take samples from wastewater, which is very effective and costs nothing. In addition to pathologies, patients do not need to contract the virus which is still circulating. There are still very long Covids and we have been alerting for a long time with epidemiologists and elderly people who die of them. Personally, I think that in hospitals, we should all wear the mask all the time”.