A caregiver with a patient infected with Covid-19 in a room at the CHU Pasteur hospital in Nice -

V. HACHE / AFP

  • The health branch of Force Ouvrière sent a letter to the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes to request the passage of the health alert to level 5. Olivier Guérin, head of the geriatrics pole at the University Hospital of Nice and member of the Scientific Council but also by Christian Estrosi also made this request at the beginning of the week.

  • At the Pasteur hospital, the CGT warns of the lack of human resources and the risk of having to postpone non-urgent operations.

The more days go by, the more the occupancy rate of intensive care beds increases in the Alpes-Maritimes, despite the new openings.

According to the latest report from the Paca Regional Health Agency, published this Thursday, it reached 90.8%.

Three more points compared to the start of the week.

It is these figures and this development that worry the staff of the Pasteur Hospital in Nice.

The health branches of the Force Ouvrière (FO) and CGT unions have requested from the prefecture the transition to level 5 health alert in the department.

A request also made by Olivier Guérin, head of the geriatrics pole at the University Hospital of Nice and member of the Scientific Council but also by Christian Estrosi on Tuesday on BFMTV.

This level would put the department in a "territorial health emergency zone", the highest established by the Ministry of Solidarity and Health.

To move to step 5, there must be a very intense circulation of the virus and more than 60% of resuscitation beds in hospitals occupied by patients with Covid-19.

The department meets these criteria.

"Our services are saturated"

“Our resuscitation services are saturated, the staff are exhausted, sometimes contaminated.

[…] Switching to level 5 health alert seems appropriate to strengthen our teams, relieve our facilities, and be able to effectively take charge of the population without distinction on pathologies ”, writes Michel Fuentes, general secretary of FO health of the department. in a letter addressed to the prefect.

Olivier Guérin, member of the scientific council, also warned in 

Nice-Matin

 of the need to go to level 5: "We never want to repeat what happened in March, with the end of medical interventions outside Covid, resulting in heavy damage next door.

We don't agree.

Our role is to save lives!

".

The same goes for the CGT.

"It is becoming very critical," says Ghislaine Raouafi, union secretary at the Pasteur hospital.

There is an acceleration of the entries.

In emergencies, ten beds were added for non-Covid patients, to make them wait in areas where they have no fear.

We are closing units that are normally fourteen beds to transform them into an eight-bed Covid unit ”.

"There is already a shortage of 100 nurses who cannot be recruited"

For her, it is more than urgent to have recourse to the health reserve and to have reinforcements, which induces the passage in a territorial health emergency zone.

“There is already a shortage of 100 nurses that we cannot recruit.

It's the same for nursing assistants, she says.

The danger is this need for staff.

We do not want to think about stopping certain operations, closing certain operating theaters to recover staff or having time-consuming units affected by the coronavirus ”.

The union secretary warns: "We must make decisions and trigger level 5. Nobody wants a stop of all non-urgent operations."

Three new Covid patients from hospitals in the Alpes-Maritimes could be transferred to Brest on Friday,

ARS Paca

told

20 minutes

.

Nice

Three more patients hospitalized in intensive care transferred from Nice to Brest

Nice

The Lenval pediatric hospital in Nice is postponing hospitalizations and operations to adapt to the surge in cases

  • Covid 19

  • Hospital

  • Coronavirus

  • Nice