The management of the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic by the French authorities is undermined by a report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas). It’s everyday The Parisian who reveals it this Wednesday, January 4, stating from the outset that it took almost two years to obtain the document, produced between July and October 2020. It must be said that the report drawn up by the four inspectors of Igas is overwhelming.
Unpreparedness, disorganization, “unreadable” decision-making circuit. The dysfunctions noted by the four Igas officers are so numerous that they have made 32 recommendations so that they do not repeat themselves.
First question: was there a delay in ignition at the Ministry of Health? If the Corruss, the center responsible for responding to health emergencies, was activated upstream, from January 27, the service then has eleven agents and quickly turns out to be undersized.
And it was only on March 10, 24 hours before the designation of Covid-19 as a global pandemic by the WHO, that we decided to call on “ massive reinforcements “, by drawing agents not necessarily competent in other administrations.
Same question concerning the non-activation of the interministerial cell before March 17, the date of the first confinement. And once activated, the report points to the total lack of organization and coordination between this cell and Public Health France, an operator outside the ministry, in particular to replenish the stocks of masks which are then sorely lacking for caregivers on the front line.
More broadly, Igas agents point out that the Ministry of Health ” has never managed to organize itself in a structured and sustainable way “.
Accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) will simply be forgotten in the crisis center system, and it is only on April 2 that we learn that the Covid has already led to the death of 884 people in the retirement homes.
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