Photos of the pediatric service and of the pediatric emergency room at the CHU Hôpital Sud in the Blosne district of Rennes.

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Camille Allain / 20 Minutes

  • The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized at Rennes University Hospital has never been higher.

  • The indicators point to a very complicated month of April for hospital activity.

  • The Rennes University Hospital is appealing for the solidarity of other health establishments.

There have never been so many patients with Covid-19 at the Rennes University Hospital.

This Tuesday, 147 patients occupied beds in the hospital center of the Breton capital, including 33 in the intensive care unit.

Figures that hide a much more complicated reality.

Because beyond the coronavirus, the hospital remains a care center, sometimes emergency, whose primary mission is essential: to treat and save lives.

“We often hear that Brittany is spared.

At the CHU, we have always been on the front line.

We welcome a third of the region's intensive care patients here, ”recalls director Véronique Anatole-Touzet.

Worn out by a year of unprecedented pandemic, healthcare staff have seen the situation deteriorate for several weeks and the number of Covid-19 patients treated skyrocket.

This weekend, eight patients were admitted in sheaves on the same night.

Never seen.

“We are already in very strong tension, at the limit of saturation, and the number of calls to the Samu is exploding.

Very often, when this is the case, we see an influx of patients two weeks later.

The indicators for the month of April scare us very much, ”warns the president of the Establishment Medical Commission, Jean-Yves Gauvrit.

Not spared, the CHU also has to deal with clusters within its staff, which makes its mobilization even more complicated.

For the time being, only 60% of the staff are vaccinated due to lack of sufficient doses.

"We have the impression that we are doing nothing in Brittany"

To cope with this new influx of patients, the CHU has already started deprogramming.

More than 25% of acts considered non-urgent have already been postponed in order to free up places for Covid patients.

“When you look at the intensive care occupancy figures, you get the impression that nothing is being done in Brittany.

But we have already gone from 50 to 83 beds.

This means that our service is already operating at more than 150% of its normal capacity, ”explains Professor Eric Wodey, head of the intensive care unit.

Before warning.

"Our maximum capacity is 110. But we will do it to the detriment of other acts."

While the incidence rates are climbing everywhere in Brittany (and in France), the Rennes University Hospital has no choice but to call for help.

If he receives staff from the Sagesse and Saint-Laurent clinics from time to time, he seems to be making a more direct appeal to private establishments such as the CHP Saint-Grégoire or the Cesson-Sévigné clinic, but without naming them.

“They took a few patients from us but not many yet.

We are the establishment which deprograms the most while we are the one where there are the most recourse activities (acts which are not carried out anywhere else in Brittany).

This is not normal ”, regrets the director of the CHU.

Wouldn't solidarity be equal everywhere?

No answer but embarrassed laughter.

“It should be noted that solidarity is expected as much from Covid as non-Covid patients.

Because there are all the other patients to take care of, ”recalls Jean-Yves Gauvrit.

"It will take us months before returning to normal activity"

Beyond the health crisis, the hospital teams also know that they will have to face an infernal rhythm for several months still, even after the end of this epidemic.

“All this deprogramming will lead to an enormous work overload.

It will take us months before returning to normal activity, ”estimates epidemiologist Matthieu Revest.

The nursing staff are at their wit's end.

But still standing.

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