For several days now, the security perimeters installed for the Olympic Games have been transforming traffic in Paris. A restrictive system for solidarity actors who come to the aid of the most vulnerable. Less than a week before the start of the Olympic Games, Médecins du Monde is struggling to guarantee access to care for its beneficiaries. The NGO is concerned about the unusual summer period it is about to go through.
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A stone’s throw from the Stade de France and the Olympic swimming pool in Saint-Denis, Médecins du Monde usually receives people in an irregular situation. But because of the police, numerous in the streets of the capital to ensure the smooth running of the Games, the NGO preferred to close its premises this summer. In order not to expose our audiences to the risk of arrest, we have chosen to close our premises and relocate part of our activity to other locations, further away from the Olympic sites. “, explains to RFI Matthieu Dréant, coordinator at this center. This branch of Doctors of the World closed on July 1st, he continues. It should reopen on September 15th.
In the first weeks after its closure, the people monitored by the NGO went to Pantin and Bobigny, two nearby towns in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. But in the last three days, Matthieu Dréant deplores having received almost no patients. Even the patients with whom we had appointments told us on the phone that given the implementation of security perimeters, QR codes and the extremely strong and visible police presence, they preferred to forgo their care and therefore forgo coming to see us. »
The NGO thus fears that patients who have allowed their health to deteriorate will arrive in September, with possible more complex pathologies to treat and after a summer under the threat of Covid-19; some 15 million visitors are expected in Ile-de-France for the Olympic Games (from July 26 to August 11) and Paralympic (from August 28 to September 8).
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