ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic put the French health system, mainly based on local and regional organisation, under tremendously high pressure. During the crisis climax, many hospitals, like the Strasbourg University Hospital, had to rely on backup from available anaesthesiologists, working in spared regions, to relieve healthcare resources and reinforce local teams. This remarkable chain of solidarity compensated for limited healthcare resources and allowed for appropriate, high-level care of severe COVID-19 patients in Strasbourg. Adequate allocation of medical resources required anticipation, reactivity and a skill-oriented dispatch from both administrative and medical perspectives. To maximise its efficacy, this system should focus on facilitating rapid integration of medical resources from abroad in ancillary tasks and ease their rapid acquisition of local protocols. One again, human factor turned out to be the most decisive element in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic.