One year after the start of the Covid-19 crisis, exhausted by several successive peaks and their working conditions, healthcare workers are at their wit's end. In many countries, voices are being raised ...

In Europe, hospitals face the threat of a wave of "burn out" and resignations

In the United Kingdom, 100,000 nurses and 8,000 midwives are said to be considering leaving the ship of the NHS, the British public health system.

REUTERS - POOL

Text by: Jeanne Bartoli

6 mins

One year after the start of the Covid-19 crisis, exhausted by several successive peaks and their working conditions, healthcare workers are at their wit's end.

In many countries, voices are now being raised to be alarmed at the risk of a “psychic pandemic”.

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The figures are indicative of the extent of the malaise.

In the United Kingdom, 100,000 nurses and 8,000 midwives are considering leaving the ship of the NHS, the British public health system,

according to a study

conducted by the think tank Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the institute YouGov poll.

A quarter of NHS workers are said to be more likely to quit their jobs than a year ago.

In the United Kingdom, as elsewhere, the Covid-19 health crisis has pushed staff to the breaking point: degraded working conditions, low pay and now exposure to psychological risks.

The study reveals an explosion of manifestations of stress among NHS employees since March 2020. Last week, the

NHS confederation

estimated that Boris Johnson would struggle to keep his promise to hire 50,000 nurses by 2024 .

Resignations and staff shortage

On the other side of the Channel, in France, some hospitals are also registering requests for serial resignations, such as the Besançon hospital, where 80 agents have expressed the wish to leave the CHRU since November, according to

L'Est Républicain
.

Half were refused in the face of the current saturation of services.

Around 10% of caregivers are currently on sick leave in hospitals,

" warns Thierry Amouroux, spokesperson for the national union of nursing professionals.

A trend that is increasing

", he warns, evoking a "

feeling of discrepancy between the experience of staff and the current management of the epidemic

These sick leaves are now putting a strain on hospital structures.

There are a lot of stops, of exhausted people, but also colleagues who have caught the Covid

", testifies Émeline Marin, nurse seconded to reinforce the Hyères hospital, in the south of France.

“

The last time a colleague came to work, but he tested positive after a test and left immediately.
As a result, the whole schedule was turned upside down, our schedules changed.

A feeling of work in a hurry and without additional resources that weighs on the teams: “

This weekend, I was in the geriatric department.
Two patients were diagnosed with Covid cases.
We had to keep them in the same department, because there was no room elsewhere.
It's a lot of extra stress, we didn't even have time to talk to the patients

WHO sounds the alarm

Among become recurrent diseases among caregivers exposed Covid, insomnia, depression, burnout syndrome (

burnout

) but also cases of post-traumatic stress.

The lack of resources and the various waves of the epidemic have left their mark.

For Thierry Amouroux, the nurses do not want to relive the ordeal of sorting patients as in the first wave.

“

For now, this is not happening again.
But when you go to 40%, even 80% of deprogramming of operations in hospitals, in a way the sorting is already there between what is urgent and what is not.
Even if it is not yet a sort on the resuscitation.

The SNIP spokesperson mentions 34,000 vacant nursing positions in September 2020, all structures combined, against 7,500 only in June.

In its weekly epidemiological report dated March 31, the World Health Organization now reports that doctors, nurses and other medical personnel have higher levels of anxiety and depression than other occupational groups.

WHO cites a study published in the

British Medical journal

of 2,884 health workers in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

There is a clear correlation between long-term exposure to Covid-19 and the development of post-traumatic

stress," said Wissam El-Hage, professor of psychiatry, co-director of research at Inserm , and author of a preliminary study on the psychological state of 1,000 caregivers after the first wave of Covid-19.

“

We have woven the war metaphor a lot around post-traumatic stress, but the Covid is a struggle.
He kills and opposite, we have hospitals that risk sorting.
As in times of war, in the end we choose who we can save, who we will have to sacrifice.

Salary increases deemed insufficient

Like the “Ségur de la santé” in France, this plan announced in the summer of 2020 by the government for the hospital, providing for an increase of 180 euros for paramedical personnel, and which has disappointed many professionals, The issue of wage increases remains a hot topic in Europe.

In England,

the remarks

of the Minister of State Nadine Dorries on the increase of 1% of the wages of the personnel of the NHS, qualified as “

maximum that the government can afford

” had caused an

outcry in

early March.

Among the good students of the continent, Germany, where the mobilization of nursing staff in the fall had resulted in an increase of 8.7% over two years for nurses, up to a 10% increase for those working in nursing homes. intensive care services.

In Europe, hospitals face the threat of a wave of "burn out" and resignations

In Europe, hospitals face the threat of a wave of "burn out" and resignations

Resignations and staff shortage

WHO sounds the alarm

Salary increases deemed insufficient

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