in Bobigny, solidarity between caregivers to withstand the shock

At the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), Dr Julien Schmidt is anxiously awaiting the result of his PCR test. “I cough a little, I’m not very worried but my colleagues are not reassured”, he describes. If his test is positive, he will have to leave his post, the time of compulsory isolation. However, he is supposed to be on call during the New Year’s Eve weekend. He fears of “place a heavy additional workload on the shoulders of [ses] colleagues, who are also friends. And I don’t want that to happen. “

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While the number of patients in intensive care exceeded 3,300 on December 27, a record since the end of May, the exponential spread of the Omicron variant is also affecting caregivers. At Avicenna Hospital, two of Dr Schmidt’s colleagues have tested positive and are confined to their homes.

Volunteer, Samira Chekaf, nurse, has decided to give up part of her vacation, to replace one of her sisters on leave for Covid. She had, however, taken a week’s vacation, to be with her daughter. “But since there are few people, I warned that I could come back”, she explains.

Likewise, Serap Bagci had taken three weeks of vacation, which she planned to spend quietly at home. She has already been called back seven times by the hospital for replacements, for which she is paid in increased overtime. “I didn’t cut at all”, summarizes the nurse.

“Psychologically, I’m not at all rested. We’ve been in the Covid for two years, and luckily there is a good atmosphere, because otherwise it would have been very complicated.”

Serap Bagci, nurse at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny

to franceinfo

It is thanks to mutual aid within the service that Samira Chekaf believes she is holding up. “We find times to laugh”, she slips, “It’s mandatory! If it weren’t for the people who are here today, I don’t think I would have stayed.”

The working atmosphere is fundamental so that everyone is on the bridge, and can face the fifth wave of the Covid which is amplifying. Everyone is in the same boat, that of the volunteers “doctors, nurses, orderlies”, describes Professor Yves Cohen, head of intensive care at the hospital, recalling that in this type of service, “if there is no team cohesion, it cannot work.”

The Christmas meal within the service has also been maintained, but modified. It takes place in several times, and in groups of up to six.