Tensions are mounting in hospitals. Faced with the arrival of the fifth wave, hospitals have reactivated their white plan and have massively deprogrammed the operations deemed to be the least urgent. Because the nursing staff is lacking, also contaminated by the virus, in particular at the Necker hospital in Paris. As a result, interventions, already canceled in previous waves, are once again behind schedule.
Loss of kidney function in some children
“60% of patients have been canceled in the next two weeks for reasons of insufficient staff. The problem is that the one you cancel, for example, from Friday, has already been canceled four times for others reasons “, warns Sabine Sarnacki.
The head of the visceral and urological pediatric department of the CH Necker, cites as an example urinary malformations, non-urgent interventions but which, by dint of repeated infections, can have repercussions on the health of patients, especially children. “By dint of being postponed, sometimes the patients waited a year and a half so they got infected with morbidity. And then, I think you could say that some children lost kidney function.”
An occupancy rate in sheaves above 90% for Auvergne Rhône-Alpes
The Necker Hospital in Paris is not the only establishment concerned. Elsewhere, in Auvergne Rhône-Alpes for example, hospital tension remains just as strong. Since December 8, hospitals in the region have launched their white plan, at the request of the ARS.
While the incidence rate is currently above 1,850 per 100,000 inhabitants – over the period from 25 to 31 December – the overall occupancy rate of intensive care units at the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL) on Tuesday was 94.6% ( calculated on 168 intensive care beds installed today) against 93.2% (calculated on 161 intensive care beds installed last week). As of Tuesday, 81 patients out of 159 in intensive care were Covid patients.
If non-urgent operations have been deprogrammed as elsewhere, the ARS has however asked the establishments to maintain oncology and transplant surgery activities, the monitoring of chronic diseases, and those of mental health, especially for the youngest.
90% of unvaccinated patients in Strasbourg
In the Grand-Est region, the instructions are the same. At Colmar hospital, 38 intensive care beds are open. Tuesday, there was only one available. So to take care of all these patients and future ones, you need arms. This is why 45% of surgical interventions have been deprogrammed since mid-December. Before the start of the fifth wave, the Colmar hospital was rather around 20% deprogramming.
In Strasbourg, there are 162 confirmed Covid patients (all services combined) including 49 in intensive care, against 50 on January 3 and 59 on December 31. On the other hand, between 85 and 90% of these patients are not vaccinated. On the Nancy side, among the 103 patients in intensive care, 40 are carriers of Covid (29 are unvaccinated, 11 are vaccinated, including 5 with comorbidities or a second dose dating back more than 6 months).
In the PACA region, initial capacities have been exceeded
In the south, in the PACA region, the occupancy rate of critical care beds is 108%. This means that the initial capacities have been exceeded. We had to open beds, and therefore deprogram. The effect is direct in the internal medicine department of the Timone hospital in Marseille: 70% of operations had to be deprogrammed.
“There is a certain category of patients who could wait a few weeks but who will not wait any longer. For example, for heart surgery, when you are waiting to change valves (…) you have to go”, warns Jean-Luc Jouve, president of the medical commission for the establishment of public assistance for hospitals in Marseille, before also recalling that we are “not yet under the Omicron regime”.
Among the operations most affected, surgery of the tonsils or a hip prosthesis for example. Further south, at the Nice University Hospital, 40 people are in critical care and, once again, 95% of these patients are not vaccinated or do not have a complete vaccination schedule.
Patient transfers to Lille
In Lille, the nursing teams are bored and tired. But especially in the misunderstanding because a high percentage of serious cases correspond to unvaccinated people. At the Lille University Hospital, there are 30% deprogramming. Of the 103 Covid patients hosted by the establishment, 44 are in intensive care. For the moment, the hospital center is in material capacity to cope, and even welcomed at the end of December, two patients from Antibes.