Caregivers in a Covid cell in Marseille – Mathilde Ceilles / 20 Minutes
- During his speech, Emmanuel Macron announced the opening of additional beds in intensive care, to deal with the coronavirus epidemic.
- At the Timone, the Covid cells are saturated, and, for lack of personnel, caregivers are wondering how they can increase their reception capacity.
From our special correspondent at La Timone
The last time we walked these corridors, at the end of September, France was just considering the possibility of a second wave. The situation was slowly starting to become tense on the second floor of La Timone, in Marseille, transformed in spring 2020 into a Covid cell. Six months later, while Emmanuel Macron asked this Wednesday for the opening of additional beds to cope with a galloping coronavirus epidemic, the head of this intensive care unit does not hide his bitterness.
“We are on the verge of breaking up,” observes, annoyed, Professor Nicolas Bruder. We’re being asked to do more, but I don’t know how we’re going to do it. We are basically told: “Increase the number of beds, manage!” “This Tuesday, the Regional Health Agency has indeed strengthened the fifth level of the crisis management plan in hospitals in Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur, as the situation is complex in the region.
“Macron attacked us, the caregivers”
On the second floor of the Timone, since the middle of the week, none of the twenty beds of this Covid unit are available. “Mr. G. should be transferred to my unit this morning,” says Pascale. In a complex logic of communicating vessels, as soon as a patient is no longer positive for the coronavirus, caregivers seek to evacuate him from the Covid cell, in order to free up a place. “For the moment, if there are new patients, they will have to go elsewhere, perhaps to other AP-HM sites,” assumes Angélique, referral nurse. The waiting list is already long! “
Like millions of French people, the latter listened to the speech of the President of the Republic the day before. And disappointment is in order. “They attacked us, the caregivers,” says Angélique. He asks to increase resuscitation capacities. But you can’t train staff like that in a snap! It does not work like that. We have a real hassle to recruit! And not everyone can improvise as an expert in resuscitation. “
” It’s impossible “
For months, the AP-HM has indeed been lacking in arms: last February, more than a hundred caregivers were missing in Marseille hospitals. Angélique recounts the express apprenticeships in a few weeks, the young recruits so quickly “thrown in the bath”, to whom we must regularly submit additional training sessions to enhance their skills.
“Doctors have been working night shifts every third day for six months,” says Professor Bruner. It’s pretty destructive for their family lives, their social lives. They run 60 hours a week. What are we going to ask them? That they do even more guards? It’s impossible. The private sector must come and help us! “
“We sort the patients”
In this context of tensions, despite the little jokes between two patients to be treated, the weariness behind the FFP2 masks is perceptible in the corridors of the Timone. “Yes, we are a little fed up with this Covid,” confides Christophe, a nurse for ten years. I thought I could take a vacation, go away to breathe, and then I was told in addition that when I go home, I will be confined to ten kilometers. “Anyway, we don’t have a choice,” sighs Thomas. If we don’t do our job, who will? Who will take care of the patients? They know that. They play on it, and that’s why we are really exposed to burnout. “
While waiting for possible reinforcements, at the AP-HM, we resolved to what everyone feared. “We sort the patients,” sighs Professor Bruner. Those with severe Parkinson’s disease, or severe epilepsy, are told there is no emergency. We first take those we have already made wait for six months. We are there anyway. You realize ? “