With one of the highest incidence rates in France, Corsica is no exception when it comes to the difficulties encountered by caregivers. A situation for which the Covid is not the cause, but a powerful catalyst. Testimonies from a daily energized
Barrier gestures, wearing a mask, health instructions have now become part of everyday life, but while it is obviously essential to protect yourself from the coronavirus to preserve and spare hospital, the situation is such that the Covid alone is no longer sufficient to explain the hospital overload, in Corsica and elsewhere. But perhaps even more so on an island where the supply and the capacity for care were already limited.
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While the holiday season is in full swing, small everyday injuries such as accidents of life are more than ever likely to put the hospital in tension, and saturate the services. With 170,000 people expected for the end of the year celebrations, and an accident rate which increases mechanically because of this influx of population, caution is required in the face of risky situations, such as road or domestic accidents. Today more than yesterday, it is essential to ensure your own safety, and to spare caregivers “breathless”.
From Bastia hospital to Ajaccio hospital, two different configurations, but the same problem, that of overload.
Significant indicator, that of the lack of volunteers for overtime, about which Jean Castex announced an increase in remuneration. A bonus that is no longer enough: “If we lack volunteers for overtime, and this, despite their increase, it is quite simply because caregivers can no longer take it. Hospital staff need rest,” notes Marie-Antoinette Bruni, CFDT representative at Ajaccio hospital. “We do not work overtime just for money, but also and above all out of a sense of duty, and out of solidarity with our colleagues. Because one day it will also be our turn to need reinforcements”, adds Françoise Cinarca, STC delegate at La Miséricorde.
Services that are fully booked
Full services, all pathologies combined, patients that we are trying to dispatch “where there is room”, endless hours of waiting on a seat or on a stretcher in the emergency room, patients who must be sorted according to the urgency, to know which one will continue to wait or will be able to benefit from a bed, this is n ‘ is more of a fear, it is a reality. As for the lack of resources, caregivers were already in the streets before the pandemic.
“The caregivers are exhausted, and we are sorely lacking in staff, this is nothing new, we were already lacking before, summarizes Marie-Antoinette Bruni, we’re pretty much up to date on time off, but caregivers know they can be called back on their days off. We don’t have more absenteeism than usual, but when we talk to them, we feel that they are at their end. For the moment, they are holding, but until when? This must not continue to get worse. We have very little leeway in terms of space. “
Faced with caregivers, patients, and families suffering because of the ban on visits. “We make sure to be with these patients, who suffer from not being able to see their families, it is trying and it adds a load.”
Non-emergency operations are already being deprogrammed, but the line between what is urgent and what is not can sometimes be blurred: “What is not yet urgent can become so. In addition, patients hesitate to come to the hospital because they know that it is overload. Sometimes, they come too late. There are delays in treatment. because the patients were slow to come, with consequences that can be fatal, exposed Françoise Cinarca, even if they don’t come to the hospital, they shouldn’t hesitate to see their doctor. “
A less tense situation in Ajaccio
But in emergencies as in services, if the situation is slightly less tense than in Bastia (read below), you have to juggle to be able to take care of the sick. “We have a little more margin than the Bastia hospital, but it would be enough for us to have no more”, summarizes Marie-Antoinette Bruni.
“It happens that patients are installed in another department while waiting for a bed to become available in the department which must take care of them., adds Françoise Cinarca, assigned to the cardiology department, exhaustion is general, now that we know that we can be remembered on our days off, it becomes very difficult to drop out once home. It is exhausting. When we are at work we have to forget about our personal life, but the reverse is not possible anymore, and inevitably our personal and family life suffers. “
Professional life is also affected, and, in these professions of passion and vocations, the latter are rare when faced with the situation of the health system.
“We love our job, but we are going to work with the anguish of knowing what will fall on us. We are exhausted, and it shows in the work. At each change of guard, we are afraid of forgetting something, important information we wouldn’t have passed on, so many call back after they get home to make sure they haven’t forgotten anything. It wasn’t like that before. “
A storm for the medical staff who sees neither the end of the crisis, nor a quick and concrete solution: “It takes several years to train caregivers, but we need them now. As for the epidemic, even if at the 5e vague the system is broken in, we never get used to it, and above all, we do not even see the end of the tunnel. We are impatiently awaiting the new hospital, which will also provide relief to Bastia “, concludes Françoise Cinarca.
For caregivers, families and the sick, at the end of the year, it is more necessary than ever to be cautious about Covid as well as road and life accidents. So that the joy of the holidays does not give way to human tragedies.
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