Covid-19: Bayonne hospital “on the verge of rupture”, “caregivers are tired” – South West

At the Basque Coast Hospital Center (CHCB), in Bayonne, “we are on the verge of rupture”breathes Franck Calleja, CDFT delegate, who will be back in his intensive care unit on Saturday. With 13 patients currently in Covid intensive care out of the 14 available beds, the occupancy rate is reaching its maximum.

Six patients transferred to Dax and Pau

From this hospital group of 1,200 beds in total, six patients had to be transferred in recent days to the neighboring hospitals of Dax and Pau. And the next few weeks worry nursing staff and management, because of the delayed effect of contamination after the peak in tourist traffic in the first half of August on the Basque coast: “The caregivers are tired. We have several months of crisis behind us. This summer, we hoped to breathe a bit, ”says Michel Glanes, director of the Bayonne hospital.

The white plan, which makes it possible to increase resuscitation capacities and call back staff, was launched on August 9 in hospitals in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It was then affected by an incidence rate of 198.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, from 280.8 in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

In Bayonne, the hospital took the lead on July 26. The then high incidence rate justified triggering “early”, explains the director. Until July 27, however, only three beds were occupied. “But it was growing very hard and it accelerated very quickly from July 29,” he adds. The white plan, which has 4 thresholds, is, in Bayonne, at its maximum. The 13 people in intensive care, aged 30 to 45, are “for the vast majority” unvaccinated.

Thirty other Covid patients are also treated in other services such as pulmonology or in post-resuscitation follow-up care. The “classic” resuscitation, compulsory during the summer and its share of accidents or drownings, is also full, with 13 beds occupied out of 14 available.

“There are positions that are not filled because we cannot find anyone”

In addition to the increase in contamination, there are also staffing problems inherent in vacation periods. The rate of absenteeism is also higher with employees “evicted” due to pregnancy for example, and recruitment increasingly difficult. “There are positions that are not filled because we cannot find anyone,” said union representative Franck Calleja. Some employees have also left their post out of “saturation” or “weariness”.

“We had never seen that, there have been several resignations, people are cracking up and giving up”

“We had never seen that, there have been several resignations, people crack and give up,” says another union representative from the CGT. “We manage to get out of it but it’s still very tense,” says the director of the establishment. If four operating theaters have already been closed in order to be able to switch personnel from the operating room and surgery to resuscitation, the hospital management is considering other measures to offset the expected increase in activity. Closures of beds or departments, transfers and callbacks of staff, transfer of patients to other establishments or reinforcements of caregivers from less affected areas are always possible. Already, during the summer, some intensive care workers have been recalled, “but always on a voluntary basis”, specifies Michel Glanes.

The “fatigue accumulated for a year and a half” and the vaccination obligation of caregivers in effect from October 15 raise fears of a “very complicated” return to the unions. At the Center hospitalier de la Côte Basque, 83% of nursing staff have already been vaccinated. The remaining 17% are encouraged to do so “every day” by the management, “to avoid staff problems” at the start of the school year.