- This Thursday, the head of state asked all the caregivers "to continue to make sacrifices" during a televised address.
- A message that goes wrong for some doctors or nurses who are suffering from the structural crisis affecting the public hospital in France.
- Conscious of the coming intensification of the epidemic, caregivers fear exhaustion and saturation of their services.
"I will ask you to continue to make sacrifices," warned the President of the Republic on Thursday, March 12. For all caregivers in France, the coming weeks will be particularly tough in the context of a latent crisis in the public hospital. Whether they practice in their own offices, work at home as a self-employed person or in hospital structures, doctors, nurses, surgeons or nursing assistants are now afraid of the intensification of the epidemic, deemed inexorable by the scientific community.
In less than 24 hours, nearly 140 testimonies from caregivers were received at the 20 Minutes editorial office . Whether it is the management of the care of their children, the increased shortage of staff in public hospitals, the risk of exhaustion or the insufficient equipment made available, fears and questions seem to accumulate for medical teams. Already exhausted by an unprecedented strike movement in some hospitals, the carers said they were still ready "to go to the front".
Childcare, additional anxiety
Charlène is a nursing assistant at the Nantes University Hospital. Every day, this mother of three who works at night has to drive 35 km to get to the hospital. “I don't know how I'm going to do in the coming weeks if nothing is set up near my home. I can't be arrested and neither can my spouse, ”she wrote. For the time being, she has found no childcare solution for her children aged 4 to 9 years. And wonders: "Will I have to sacrifice my sleep to keep them? "
Virginie and her husband, both nurses, are also struggling to see a solution for the coming days: “We have two children aged 10 and 12 years old. We cannot solicit grandparents because our children are vectors for them. We cannot abandon our patients and colleagues. The anxiety I feel is at its maximum. How are we going to do this ? "
If Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of Education announced the establishment of "a minimum service for the children of caregivers", Emmanuel Macron, he called on the French to "help the neighbor when he is caregiver and that he needs a childcare solution. " Unthinkable tells us Lulu, a nurse who works at night and who refuses to take the risk of "contaminating those around him". For the thousands of caregivers, this additional constraint is now added to working conditions made more and more difficult with the epidemic.
Fear of worsening hospital crisis
For Coralie, the situation looks tense. At 37, this nurse fears "the massive influx of patients to come": "We are apprehensive. The hospital is already very fragile. Some beds in our CHU are closed for lack of staff to care for patients. Where does the government plan to get nurses out of? From his hat? We will not stand on the distance it is obvious ”. In the department of Charlene, a nurse, three of her colleagues are already missing. “Honestly, I can't see how things are going. We will be forced to open additional beds despite the quota of dependent patients already exceeded. We have few means to protect ourselves (…) and we will soon be the future victims of this virus ”.
Affected by the lack of staff, Charlène and her colleagues are "exhausted". The young woman specifies: “The holidays go back to November for some of us and last night, our manager told us that we should not hope to have them in April. How are we going to hold on? And for some, Emmanuel Macron's message goes wrong. Christine, a nurse in a department of digestive and vascular surgery in a hospital center in the South West, deplores: “Our President talks to us about coping with the epidemic. But with what technical and human means? We are asked to do more with less. "
In the numerous testimonies received, despite this "lack of means", "the days of leave not taken" and "the excess hours" pointed out by the carers, all claim their attachment to their profession. "We will do our job because we are dedicated and we do not accept to leave our patients and colleagues. But beware of the backlash because there will certainly be work stoppages and burnout at the end of this crisis. You can't imagine the stress that this creates on the healthcare team, ”wrote Betty, a night nurse in pulmonology.
Liberal caregivers in the unknown
Among the readers of 20 Minutes, many liberal caregivers expressed their specific concerns about the exercise of their activity. Nicolas is a dental surgeon and fears of contracting the virus himself. “We are advised to use specific FFP2 masks to work, but there are none. I have the impression of being a soldier who is sent to the front without a weapon! We are on the front line but without protection, it is an announced disaster, ”he predicted. This Thursday evening, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, announced that these protective masks would be sent gradually over all the territory to liberal doctors.
"I feel like a soldier we are sending to the front without a weapon! We are on the front line but without protection"
An essential measure since most of the nurses and practitioners who agreed to testify say they suffer from an increased lack of equipment. "The allocation of a box of fifty masks last week allows me to last two days at best when we can quickly become a vector of transmission", loose Laurence, liberal nurse.
A finding shared by Sylvain, who practices the same profession in Montpellier: “The majority of my patients are polypathological elderly people considered as immunocompromised. I go from one home to another. I am therefore a potential vector of the virus for all these people. I have a small stock of hydroalcoholic gel but no mask ”. And the possibility of contamination in the coming weeks worries the nurse: “Who will take care of these patients, some of whom are heavily dependent and cannot do without daily care? "
Support needed
If Emmanuel Macron's call to the attention of caregivers has aroused anger in some, others say they are ready to continue the sacrifices already made alongside the most requested medical teams. Maud, 43, is a nursery nurse. Constraint to technical unemployment from next Monday with the announcement of the closure of all schools, she explains: "To avoid the exhaustion of colleagues from hospitals, it seems normal to go and support the teams (...) let us all be united if we want to avoid disaster. "
Our file on the coronavirus
Others say they are ready to increase their workload. “My work is focused exclusively on the operating room, but I can also work in intensive care. My knowledge of the pharmacology of resuscitation treatments and the materials used will be useful in the weeks to come, ”says Yvonnick, a nurse anesthetist in a private hospital structure. The intensive care services of these establishments could be brought to receive patients requiring resuscitation care adds the young man. A perspective for which Yvonnick prepared: “I feel ready to accomplish this task to help a maximum of people affected by the complications of the Covid-19 infection (…) Resuscitation services in hospital centers must be relieved public ”.
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