A situation that matches the Var trend. Across the department, 80 patients were in intensive care on Wednesday March 24, according to the authorities, a record number since the start of the pandemic.
During the first wave “traumatic because new”, the hospital had “stopped everything” to focus on patients with Covid-19. During the second wave, the establishment had hired more staff and deprogrammed 60% of operations “deferred without loss of luck”, which had made it possible to “pass the course”, according to the department head.
“The patients are in a more severe condition”
But “this third wave is worse because it lasts and continues to progress,” says Dr. Ducros. “We opened as many beds as in the second wave while deprogramming fewer operations.” Currently, the rate deprogramming is 20% in Sainte-Musse. “We manage to function thanks to intra-departmental transfers”, details the Toulon doctor.
Through a game of “musical chairs” or “Tetris”, the department’s hospitals coordinate so that no critical care bed is left unoccupied.
Between December 15 and March 22, the hospital carried out 161 transfers, both within and outside the department.
If this third wave is “more difficult”, it is also because the English variant is more virulent.
“Patients are in more severe conditions and for longer“, laments the doctor. In the fall, the staff had been trained in less invasive treatments, such as corticosteroid therapy, which had proved effective.
“We thought we would get there“, says the health professional. But the English variant is more resistant and affects younger patients.
According to Dr Ducros, the population currently in intensive care is between 40 and 75 years old. Currently, vaccination is open to those over 75, and will be extended to those over 70 on Saturday.
“It is a population that we no longer see in intensive care. A much faster and more massive vaccination is needed, night and day, weekends and holidays included, from the age of 40, because it is they who are in critical care“, defends the doctor.
Other solution: “No longer seeing each other. I’m sorry, but you have to stick to your family social bubble, not to go out, not to go to work. If we strictly followed the instructions, if we limited ourselves to gatherings of six people, that would already be good“, continues the head of the intensive care unit, for whom”There is no miracle solution“.
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