Aicha sleeps in her mother’s arms in the middle of the pediatric emergency corridor at the Jean-Verdier hospital in Bondy in Seine-Saint-Denis. She has been waiting for six hours: “It’s long, indeed”, recognizes the mother of the family. There is no place elsewhere in the hospital for this 2 month old baby or in the other hospitals in the region. Isam Ben Hadj, nurse, is sorry: “For us it’s frustrating, the activity around continues and we have to run everywhere.”
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The bronchiolitis epidemic is overflowing the hospitals. It is more violent this year 2022 among infants and the shortage of caregivers does not help matters. Even if a small temporary ebb seems to be emerging thanks to the All Saints holidays which have allowed less mixing of children and less contamination. In Jean-Verdier, the hospital is tight. Even if the parents excuse the situation. “We are not the only ones because we see a lot of patients scrollingindicates one of them. It is certainly linked to the lack of personnel in the hospitals. The staff shortage, indeed, confirms the head of the department, Professor Loïc de Pontual: “Currently, in the service, we have five vacancies for night nurses. We also have vacancies for nursing assistants regularly, and two positions for doctors.”
The emergency department is packed and outside the waiting room sometimes overflows into the hospital cafeteria. “It’s the race, it’s the stress, it’s the anguishlists Patricia Maurice, a nurse for 14 years in the pediatric department. At the end of the day, we are a little exhausted. We’re drained because we know we have to come back the next day. We wonder a bit how it’s going to be, and if we’re going to come back.”
For the head of the service, the measures announced Wednesday, November 2 by the Minister of Health, such as doubling the night allowance for nurses are not enough. “We know that there are almost 200,000 nurses in France who are qualified and who do not practice their professionnoted Professor Loïc de Pontual. They work in a company and do management or work in a bakery. And they are ready to come back for some, because it’s a wonderful job. There are a lot of people who leave with a heavy heart, so we have to manage to bring them back.”
“To bring the nurses back, there are some financial measures but there is also to assure them that they will have a quality of work.”
Professor Loïc de Pontual, head of departmentat franceinfo
And for this, the Pediatrics Collective, which was recently formed, calls for patient-to-caregiver ratios to guarantee bearable working conditions.