"Hospital under tension, exhausted staff, population in danger, death of the hospital service", denounces a large banner hung on the gates of the establishment. Nurses and orderlies from the service responsible for welcoming Covid-19 patients at Laval hospital, in Mayenne, have been on indefinite strike since Wednesday to demand additional resources. The department crossed the alert threshold this summer, in the face of the renewed epidemic.
At the #Laval hospital, agents from the internal medicine services and # Covid-19 have been on indefinite strike since yesterday at the call of the majority union Force Ouvrière. He denounces in particular a lack of staff following the first wave of #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/pYK7xYErCC
- France 3 Pays de la Loire (@ F3PaysdelaLoire) August 20, 2020“It's the strike for Covid medicine at CH Laval! », Announces the Facebook page of the Force Ouvrière (FO) section of the hospital. “That there are, in the same department and separated only by a door, Covid patients and non-Covid patients is not quite normal when we are supposed to have dedicated services. If there is cross-contamination, the management and the ARS will have to take their responsibilities, ”reacted Sébastien Lardeux, secretary general of the Mayenne FO departmental union.
"We had backup during the day, but it's temporary, and at night, there is only one nurse for 24 patients, including 12 Covid, while there are special procedures, in particular dressing / undressing to switch from one type of patient to another ", testifies Maxime Lebigot, nurse and deputy secretary general of the hospital, specifying that some caregivers," exhausted, thought to breathe during the summer period but are today ' hui on sick leave ”.
"An increase in tasks"
In a press release, management recalls that "the internal medicine service, exclusively dedicated to welcoming Covid patients during the first phase of the epidemic, was able to once again take care of its patients with infectious diseases, blood diseases and other pathologies relating in particular to general medicine, since the number of Covid-19 patients has fallen sharply ”.
"The care of both types of patients resulting in increased tasks, human resources have been adapted on several occasions and reinforcements have been put in place", continues the press release, which reports "a (e) help - additional caregiver at night since July 19, as well as a nurse and an additional nurse during the day since August 6 ”.
According to the latest bulletin of the ARS Pays de la Loire, Mayenne recorded, on August 18, 1,336 cases tested positive since May 13, with an incidence rate (the number of positive people reported to 100,000 inhabitants) 21.6 cases, compared to 50.1 on July 15.