The Guadeloupe health system overwhelmed by the situation.

Due to the very large number of patients who present themselves in hospitals at the same time, some hospital doctors must sort the patients and refuse entry into intensive care for over 60s, said Thursday on France Inter the Minister of Overseas Sébastien Lecornu.

"The situation is unprecedented in its magnitude, it exceeds anything we could have imagined," says Marc Valette, the head of the intensive care unit in the emergency rooms of the Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital.

Normally, the number of sheave beds in the area does not reach 30. "We already have 67 open beds, 55 at the CHU, and 12 at the Basse-Terre hospital center," explains Marc Valette, who assures us that the 44 beds dedicated to Covid patients are all full.

"We are at saturation".

In other words, to get someone into intensive care, someone else will have to get out.

"Either because he is better, or because, unfortunately, he dies," said the head of department quietly.

Emergency halls crowded with waiting patients

The week of August 2 to 8, 14 people died from Covid in Guadeloupe. At the Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital, we are already anticipating up to 15 deaths per day, sometimes among patients who will not have time to be treated. The emergency room where Covid-19 patients are admitted is crowded. "We had 47 cases when we took care at 6 p.m. and we have already hospitalized 4 to 5 patients," explains Hubert Vaast, intern in gastro-gastroenterology, volunteer to do a night on call in the Covid emergency room.

Patients who are waiting often breathe with difficulty, twist on their stretcher or wheelchair, and cough painfully.

"We are approaching 70-80 emergency room admissions per day," says Aurélie Beral, an emergency doctor who is active in the buffer zone between emergencies and hospitalization.

The room is designed to accommodate four patients.

"We already have five this Wednesday evening," said Aurélie Béral.

“Two others are waiting to be taken care of.

»Already placed under oxygen, they will only be able to enter the room if those already present leave it.

Not a lack of means according to the government

Arrived in Guadeloupe on Tuesday evening, Sébastien Lecornu said he was “quite upset” by what he saw. "We anticipated all the scenarios, we put a lot of resources on the table, but the problem is that it is no longer even a problem of resources, it is that a lot of patients, all unvaccinated, come forward. at the same time in hospitals, ”he explained. With an incidence rate approaching 2,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a level never seen in France, Guadeloupe began strict containment on Friday to reduce contamination.

The metropolis has sent equipment and a reinforcement of 270 caregivers and 60 firefighters who will be shared between Guadeloupe and Martinique.

"They arrived for 15 days, and with (the Minister of Health) Olivier Véran we are already preparing the reinforcements of the reinforcements, the relief in a way," said Sébastien Lecornu.

A call for vaccination

"We are forced to reorganize the entire hospital, I have to close services to replace them with Covid units," says Gérard Cotellon, the director general of the CHU.

In the coming days, the operating theaters will accommodate resuscitation beds.

“After that, explains Marc Valette, the hospital will have reached its maximum capacity, in terms of beds but also oxygen”.

And also in terms of staff.

Because the reinforcements arrived Tuesday evening from metropolitan France will be deployed on the new open beds, not on the areas already in activity.

"It's good but it will not necessarily relieve us more than that given that we are opening additional beds," notes Cécile Baboulall, intensive care nurse.

This "remains the short-term emergency solution", explained Sébastien Lecornu, once again launching "a serious appeal" to the population to be vaccinated: "hospital reinforcements + confinement = solution to the short-term crisis;

vaccination = solution to the crises that will come in the medium and long term ”, he summarized.

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  • West Indies

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  • Guadeloupe

  • Covid 19

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  • Overseas