Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) is the largest teaching hospital trust in Europe, with 39 hospitals, 20 000 beds (10% of all public hospital beds), and an association with seven universities. AP-HP also hosts 40% of the French biomedical research. As a result of its
size and location, AP-HP has been a major player in France’s COVID-19 response, as it was in responding to terrorist attacks.(1)
AP-HP has a reputation of being an institution with a size, cumbersome operations,
and internal competition that prevent any nimble response. We are a group of health-care professionals at AP-HP who are directly involved in the management of the COVID-19 response by AP-HP. Having faced the COVID-19 pandemic, and remaining humble in facing the future, we
describe how size and coordinated management might actually have helped the organisation, speed, and consistency of the response to the COVID-19 crisis.