The "fear of death" at the AP-HM after two clusters in one week

Caregivers at La Timone -

• An outbreak of Covid-19 contamination was detected at the Timone hospital, a few days after another outbreak of contamination in Conception.

• This series of clusters worries the nursing staff, who say they are in danger.

  The management for its part is reassuring.

Seven nurses positive for Covid-19 this Monday, out of the fortnight who work in the heart surgery unit of the hospital of Timone.

A few days earlier, on October 7, eight caregivers and fourteen patients infected within a single service, that of hematology and cell therapy of Conception, by two other positive patients.

A third cluster spotted last month within the Maternity of Conception.

At the Public Assistance of Marseille Hospitals (AP-HM), outbreaks of coronavirus contamination have been increasing since the start of the second wave, and particularly in recent days.

"Some nurses in the operating room were indeed contaminated on Monday, tries to relativize Professor Frédéric Collart, head of the cardiac surgery department of Timone, during a press point on the subject on Tuesday.

One of them was positive without knowing it because she had no symptoms, and the contamination occurred during the fragile period of the meal.

It doesn't require a worry.

Given the scale of the virus, these are things that happen.

"

"There is only a small rest room"

An opinion that caregivers do not share, if we are to believe the unions, who blame the management.

"There is great anger among colleagues," says Yves Castino, CGT secretary general at Timone.

We come to the hospital to make a living and save others, not to damage it.

In the Timone building where the cluster was detected, there is only a small rest room of 10 m2 with more than seventy people moving around, and we cannot ventilate it.

"

“It is difficult to find suitable break rooms, those in the block having a pressurized air, we cannot ventilate them, admits Professor Frédéric Collart.

We must therefore adapt.

We asked the staff while waiting to eat outside or at home before coming to work for example.

"

"Caregivers are not protected"

“The caregivers are not protected, and the sick either, at the same time, annoys Kader Benayed, deputy departmental secretary for South Health.

Yet we had alerted.

It is the chronicle of an announced shipwreck.

We regularly get calls from colleagues who must have had a hard time getting enough hydroalcoholic gel, for example.

And there is a lack of personnel, including for sanitizing the premises.

It's scandalous "

"We are very afraid of the massacre," launches straightforward Audrey Jolibois, FO general secretary at the AP-HM.

The nurse who contaminated the service at the Timone was in contact.

Her husband was tested, and she was told to go to work while waiting for the results.

She therefore only applied what was asked of her, and that we do not ask for example in the private sector, all because we do not have enough people.

"

Our file on the coronavirus

Unlike other CHUs, the AP-HM refuses, for the time being, to work asymptomatic cases of coronavirus and asks sick caregivers to stay at home.

Nevertheless, in Marseille hospitals, the lack of personnel remains a reality, which these different clusters come to worsen.

Despite the vast recruitment campaign launched a month ago, around a hundred positions remain to be filled, and, according to our information, the AP-HM no longer receives any new CVs.

At the request of the unions, an extraordinary CHSCT was held this Tuesday afternoon at the AP-HM to discuss these issues.

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