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The Saint-Malo hospital is not spared by the third wave of the Covid-19 epidemic. (© Archive photo 2020 / Le Pays Malouin)
Saint-Malo hospital (Ille-et-Vilaine) is not spared by what must be called the ” third wave »Epidemic.
At present, its service intensive care has 14 beds occupied out of 18 open, including 12 by patients with Covid-19.
“It’s very high,” commented François Cuesta, director of the Rance Émeraude Hospital Group, Monday evening April 8, 2021. And yet it is less than the previous week, where 14 beds were occupied by Covid patients.
In this context, “the announcement of containment was welcome”. But nothing is won since the epidemic has already proved unpredictable …
Regional solidarity
If the Malouine resuscitation is on the verge of saturation (it can have a maximum of 20 beds), it is also and above all because the hospital has assumed its imperatives of regional solidarity.
The Rennes University Hospital having called for help, it was in Saint-Malo that Bretillian patients from Vitré or Fougères had to be taken care of.
“We were on the vital, intubated patients, we had to welcome them. “
Last week, “we therefore had 7 patients outside the territory of the Rance Emeraude Hospital Group, plus two who had been transferred from other regions”.
A closed operating room
The situation is not without consequences for GHT patients awaiting operations. In fact, intensive care needs personnel to “arm” its beds. And for that “we are closing one operating room, or even two on certain days, out of the seven in the hospital”.
This makes it possible to make nurse anesthetists (IADE) available for resuscitation.
“Each time we open two beds in this service, we have to find six nurses to provide surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” adds François Cuesta.
Concretely, it was therefore necessary to deprogram operations, while preserving vital emergencies or surgeries which, if canceled, would represent “a loss of opportunity” for patients.
“We are between 5 and 10% of deferred transactions”, assesses François Cuesta. A lesser evil if we compare this proportion to that of the Rennes University Hospital *, but it should be added that the delays accumulated because of the “massive” deprogramming of spring 2020 have still not been absorbed in Saint-Malo.
The clinic “stands ready”
For its part, the Emerald Coast Clinic explains, in a press release, that it is “ready to reduce its activity to support the hospital center”.
The private health establishment in Saint-Malo can mobilize caregivers “within 24 hours” if new intensive care beds have to be created.
“The clinic would then be forced to deprogram approximately 20% of the stays planned during this period, while taking care of course not to entail any loss of opportunity linked to a delay in care (balance benefits / risks). “
The clinic therefore intends to assume its role “on the second line”. She specifies that she has already received Covid-19 patients “in the context of emergencies or non-deferred stays (oncology for example)”.
And that it can also support the hospital “in the management of surgical or medical emergencies in the event of saturation of means”. To this end, its Unscheduled Care Unit (USNP) remains open from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
* On March 30, the Rennes University Hospital explained that it had had to close “7 operating theaters”. The overall deprogramming rate (surgery and medicine) was then 25%.
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