Lying on her bed at Villeneuve-Saint-Georges hospital (Val-de-Marne), Deborah listens attentively to the surgeon explain to her how her operation will unfold in the afternoon.
This nanny from Limeil-Brévannes suffered a serious trauma to her elbow when she fell while jogging, during the hour of exit authorized during confinement for individual sports practice.
“If this had happened during the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic, we would not have been able to operate on him.
We should have transferred her to another establishment, says Dr. Philippe Wodecki, head of the orthopedic and trauma surgery department at the Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (Chiv) intercommunal hospital center.
At the time, our 32 surgical beds were 100% dedicated to Covid-19 patients and we had only kept two of our eight operating theaters, the others having been devoted to the coronavirus.
We only carried out operations of extreme urgency, of vital importance: an unscheduled cesarean section, a ruptured aneurysm, an ectopic pregnancy… ”
Deborah smiles: “It reassures me that I can have surgery here, next to my house.
It's a lot less scary and maybe it'll make it easier for me to get out.
Everything has gone very well since the start of my care.
Even in the emergency room, I hardly waited ”.
"During the first wave, we had stopped everything"
Deborah's case is typical of the new way of handling the epidemic in the hospital, in this second wave of Covid-19.
From now on, the establishments ensure the continuity of care in a very broad way.
The store continues to operate, coronavirus or not.
“During the first wave, in March-April, we had stopped everything.
In just one time.
We had deprogrammed 80 to 85% of surgeries and 100% of consultations.
We had transformed entire services into Covid beds, remembers Fabienne Saez, care coordinator at Chiv.
There, for the second wave, we deprogrammed 50% of interventions and 30% of consultations.
"
Covid beds in each department
"The novelty of this wave is that there are Covid beds in each department, even in some that had never had them before, such as hepatology," summarizes Maud Morardet, quality risk management engineer at Chiv.
Our hygiene unit therefore regularly trains staff in handling the coronavirus: equipment, disinfection, etc. ”
Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, November 16.
The hospital lobby had been transformed into a Covid-19 unit in March.
It is - and remains - in its normal configuration for this second wave.
LP / ML
The exercise is not always easy for the 2000 personnel because it is necessary to juggle between the contaminated zones and the others.
This is the case in the infectious diseases service of Doctor Pauline Caraux-Paz, who manages patients with HIV, urinary tract infections, pulmonary infections ... “During the first confinement, our patients had been dispatched, we traveled to treat them there.
There, it's different: we keep them in our department but we have created two sectors for those with Covid (20 beds) and one sector for those who do not have it (8 beds).
"
"When we tell them that we will finally be able to take care of them, they are happy"
The staff compartmentalize the worlds well.
He avoids going to a non-Covid patient with the gown he had worn in a Covid room for example.
“Despite everything, families are afraid that their loved one will catch the disease by coming to a service welcoming cases of Covid.
This sometimes creates strong tensions, ”says Dr Caraux-Paz.
Newsletter Val-de-Marne
Every morning, the news of your department seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
But on the whole, patients are relieved by this continuity of care.
“We see real recognition and satisfaction in their eyes,” says Dr. Wodecki.
Some come to us limping, having gone to the end of the line, with tears of pain.
Their operation scheduled for the spring had sometimes had to be canceled.
So when we tell them that we will finally be able to take care of them, they are happy.
And there is activity at the moment: confinement is less restrictive so we receive work accidents, road accidents, etc.
This wave is really different, more progressive.
"
A new MRI machine that proves to be invaluable
The Chiv has recently been equipped with a new high-precision MRI machine.
LP / ML
The new high-precision MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine, which arrived in June, is proving invaluable.
It responds to a strong demand for examinations between the catch-up of unscheduled operations and cases of Covid.
Doctor Wodecki and his colleague Fabienne Saez see a glimmer of hope in observing the number of admissions of Covid-19.
After a very tense end of October, where the figures doubled every day, “that's it, the epidemic plateau has finally been reached”.