The French union of independent radiologists has urged the French health minister to set up a meeting with the key actors in medical imaging to discuss organization and optimization of the service during the coronavirus epidemic, according to a statement published on 12 March.
In an initial letter addressed to France's health authorities earlier this month, the FNMR pointed to a lack of protection against the coronavirus provided to medical staff including imagers, secretaries, and technicians in direct contact with patients.
Given that the situation has worsened, with France potentially entering stage 3 of the epidemic in the near future, imaging centers will find themselves in crisis, according to the union, which pointed out that the independent sector accounts for 70% of radiological activity in the country. Systematic recourse to pulmonary and CT imaging could overburden imaging centers and a lack of protection for teams could threaten services if radiological staff members are quarantined after exposure to the virus. The situation bodes ill for other types of patient management such as polytrauma and cancer diagnosis, follow-up and screening, the union noted.
The FNMR called for urgent coordination to be put in place between hospital departments and private centers, and it stressed that, to date, no guidelines for such coordination have been published. The union also called for adequate protection for all health teams practicing independently and asked the government to be allowed to assist in developing an action plan for optimized organization of imaging during the epidemic.
