It is ready to welcome the 10,000 athletes, their delegations and the volunteers present in the Olympic village: the athletes’ polyclinic opens its doors on July 18, one week before the start of the Olympic Games. This temporary care center, set up during the Olympic Games in an osteopathy school north of Paris, is the result of a partnership with AP-HP, a network of public hospitals in Paris. This polyclinic will be able to handle no fewer than 700 consultations per day, twice as many as a traditional hospital.
” We’ll start on the third floor, follow me. ! » At the start of the visit, our guide is called Romain Laurès, manager of the medical services of Paris 2024. He takes us to the only department of the polyclinic open 24 hours a day: « This service is the unscheduled care center, similar to an emergency service, he explains. Every night, we will have a pair made up of an emergency doctor and a nurse who can deal with any medical emergency. »
But this polyclinic does not have an operating theatre, so in the event of a life-threatening emergency: ” The SAMU will be contacted so that the patient can be evacuated and taken to a suitable hospital. “, further specifies the representative of Paris 2024.
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So there are emergencies, but all the other health disciplines are represented, whether cardiologists, dermatologists or dentists. Romain Praud is the optician referent of the polyclinic. Athletes may arrive in Paris having lost their glasses, or having broken their glasses during the journey for example. We will be there to sort out all these little problems, we will do our best “, explains the optician. Next to him, arranged and carefully sorted, are 1,500 spectacle lenses. 90% of the corrections are represented here. This allows us to have an immediate response.. »
Athletes and their delegations will not have to open their wallets since the care will be covered by Paris 2024.
State-of-the-art equipment
An immediate response, because the polyclinic is well equipped. It has, for example, a radiology room, three osteoarticular ultrasound scanners, two MRIs. State-of-the-art equipment, explains Romain Laurès. We have equipment loaned by companies such as dental equipment, equipment rented by Paris 2024, such as MRIs. And then, there are those that are made available by AP-HP and which will return to the hospitals for which they were purchased at the end of the Olympic Games.. »
Nearly 400 caregivers will take turns in this 3,500 square meter polyclinic during the Olympic Games and a little over 200 during the Paralympic Games. All are volunteers, except the heads of departments, employees of AP-HP, the network of public hospitals in Paris and the Paris region. Paris 2024 assures us that these caregivers will not be lacking in public hospitals, because all, or almost all, take their leave or free time.
An imperative of equality
While waiting for the opening, Jennifer Legrand is tidying up her medicines. She usually manages the pharmacy at the Bichat hospital in Paris. In a few days, she will be running the pharmacy at the polyclinic. It’s exciting to be at the heart of these Games that are about to take place. It might be the opportunity to rub shoulders with athletes, even if we don’t want them to go through the polyclinic “, confides the health professional.
Philippe Le Van, Paris 2024’s chief physician, will also meet athletes. And this treatment center, he says, also responds to an imperative of equality. It will allow certain athletes to benefit from a refresher. This polyclinic serves countries that are less fortunate than us, with less developed health systems, and so it allows athletes who do not have, for example, access to an MRI to have measurements, to have access to imaging and to know where they are at..”
The fact remains that to function optimally, the team of caregivers will have to be complete. At the time of our filming, there were still some staff shortages on the dentist and emergency room side.
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