TESTIMONY
Even if the situation there seems to be stabilized today, Mayenne, where the number of cases increased throughout the month of July, remains one of the departments most affected by the resumption of the coronavirus epidemic. In this context, the staff of the Covid service at the Laval hospital decided on a symbolic strike - the patients are still being treated there.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Friday August 21
"Unintentionally contaminate fragile patients"
What the strikers fear is a saturation of a service that mixes patients with coronavirus and others suffering from other pathologies ... all the more so with the arrival of the winter season, and its influenza and gastroenteritis. "This alternation between Covid and non-Covid patients, which the teams were doing, worried them because they did not want to inadvertently contaminate fragile patients with Covid", explains Maxime Lebigot, general secretary of Force Ouvrière for Mayenne.
"There were reinforcements put in by management, it made it possible to mobilize agents only on the Covid and agents only on non-Covid patients", he specifies however.
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Coronavirus: pay attention to the theory of collective immunity
> Coronavirus: three questions on rapid serological tests in pharmacies
> Holidays: should grandparents worry about looking after their grandchildren?
> Coronavirus: in schools, the health protocol will remain the same at the start of the school year
> Coronavirus: the 5 mistakes not to make with your mask
"If there is an emergency next door, it can be catastrophic"
"But there is a problem, it is the night shift", continues the union official. "There is only one nurse and two nursing assistants, so the nurse does both sectors. It's time-consuming, because you have to dress with all the personal protective equipment: charlotte, surgical masks, or FFP2 masks if you do risky actions with aerosols, coveralls, gloves, overshoes ... "
"It is immediately at least ten minutes per entry to the room, the time to get dressed and undressed," says Maxime Lebigot. "So if there is an emergency next door, unfortunately it can be catastrophic."