In Marseille, Laurent worked for fifteen years in intensive care.
Today as a liberal, he would like to take advantage of an availability to come and swell the ranks of the service which welcomes the most serious Covid-19 patients.
“Despite my almost 50 years, I will gladly sign up for the second wave,” he says.
In Paris, Stéphane, urology caregiver, received training in some of the actions of these advanced units.
Not enough to be an expert - it takes several years - but he is convinced: his arms can serve as a reinforcement for his colleagues ...
And they, like the patients, have more than they need.
And quick.
In a few days, the epidemic has accelerated very suddenly in France.
Monday, October 26, 17,761 patients with Covid-19 were hospitalized, including 2,761 in critical care, or 186 more in 24 hours.
After leaving her ten years ago, Ingrid has decided to return to intensive care for good.
Along with two other nurses, she took up her post in early October.
“I do it by choice,” she confides, “but I'm not a savior in any way, I know the difficulties.
"
If the forty-something insists, it is because there is not on one side the bad caregivers who would hang up their blouses and the good guys who would take it back at all costs.
Many came out of the first round knockout of the epidemic.
“Some are gone, others are extremely tired, and more and more are catching the Covid themselves.
There are a lot of sick caregivers these days, ”points out infectious disease specialist Gilles Pialoux.
"We will welcome them with open arms"
That, without counting the basic problem, that of attractiveness.
Too many vacant positions implying an unsustainable workload - 34,000 just for nurses since the start of the school year - salary recognition not fully at the rendezvous, even if the Ségur de la Santé has enabled real progress: a net increase of 183 euros per month for nurses and nursing aides from December.
After having applauded them every evening during confinement, it will be necessary to pamper health professionals to encourage them to return en masse to the hospital.
“The issue is human resources, conceded a few days ago, Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health, who drew up the list of needs for resuscitation.
Caregivers are needed who are able to support teams when necessary.
"
"Tell them that we are going to welcome them with open arms and that they are going to take part in an exceptional collective adventure", encourages Dominique Rossi, president of the medical commission of the Public Assistance - Hospitals of Marseille (AP- HM).
If, on this Friday evening, the professor gives everything, it is because he is coming out of a meeting with the regional health agency, which asked the institution to increase the resuscitation capacities of thirty new beds. .
"Protecting our exhausted caregivers as much as possible"
“Today, we have two taps fully open: Covid patients, and non-Covid patients.
To assume everything, we would need a ladle 100 nurses and 25 additional doctors, knowing that we have already recruited 285 since August 1, "continues Dominique Rossi.
So, to cope and relieve the nursing staff, elective interventions must be deprogrammed.
Thus, this week, nine operating theaters out of thirty will remain closed.
“For now, that's enough,” according to the AP-HM.
Will we have to go so far as to eliminate the white coats' holidays?
“Not at this stage.
We try to preserve our exhausted caregivers as much as possible.
"
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But the situation is tense in many regions.
In a letter addressed to the prefect of the Loire, 21 mayors called for "the installation of military sanitary means to compensate for the lack of nursing staff", in short the reinforcement of the army, as in Mulhouse, during the first wave.
Transfers between regions of patients with Covid have also started.
And the deprogramming is total on the whole of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
"In France, these decisions must be taken city by city so as not to make the same mistake as in the spring," warns Philippe Cuq, president of the Union of Surgeons of France.
We have to hold on, it will be hard, but we must treat Covid patients as well as non-Covid ones.
"
"Recruit, we ask only that"
On the side of Ile-de-France, very affected by the second wave of the epidemic, hospitals are also getting organized.
Deprogramming, cancellation of leave… The Public Assistance - Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP) has put on a reserve of 700 nurses, already in post in other services, but able to join the intensive care to which they were initiated.
And repeated calls for the hiring of caregivers.
Some 250 recruits are already there.
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“We are making progress, but there are still 400 missing. We have the budget! Recruiting, we ask only that ”, assures Pierre-Emmanuel Lecerf, deputy general manager of the AP-HP. For him, one thing is certain: "It is with staff, well trained, and in sufficient number with the sick that we will keep in the long term. This is also what Frédéric Adnet, head of the emergency department at Avicenne hospital, in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), asks. "If I had the means to open two additional medical services and another intensive care unit, I would have the solution," he concedes. But this staff, I don't have it. "
