The Saintes hospital, like that of Angoulême, is sorely lacking in pediatricians to deal with the bronchiolitis epidemic. In the space of 2 to 3 years, the Saintes pediatric service has gone from 11 to 4 paediatricians. This is too little to deal with the scope of the tasks that doctors have to perform. This is a situation suffered by doctor Gwenaëlle Massé, who works in the hospital center of Charente-Maritime.
“Big weeks we can work 80 hours”
France is currently affected by an epidemic of bronchiolitis which is putting pediatric services in difficulty. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region is particularly affected with an increase of more than 20% in emergency visits among children under 2 years old, during the week of October 24 to 30, according to the ARS. The hospitals of the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime, in particular that of Angoulême and that of Saintes, are not spared. A situation aggravated by the lack of hospital paediatricians. “We went from a staff of 11 to 4 pediatricians and a little less than five full-time equivalents in the space of 2 to 3 years”, testifies Gwenaëlle Massé, pediatrician at the Saintes hospital. The doctor seems exhausted, but manages to find a few minutes to answer our questions. “The small weeks, we work 50 hours. The big weeks, we can work 80 hours”she attests.
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No respite
Wet eyes, Gwenaëlle Massé confesses “It’s very difficult because we are very busy. We try to do the same activity we did before, but it’s still quite difficult since we, as paediatricians, we have the pediatrics department, but also the neonatology department (or there are babies less than a month old and premature babies), maternity, consultations, emergencies and day hospital. So we have six sectors to run with a little less than five full-time equivalents and we also have difficulties in using temporary workers.”
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A job with too many constraints
The miracle solution would be new hires, but no one comes knocking on the door of the pediatric service, notes the doctor. “It’s been three years since there have been job applications that have been posted and we’ve only had one recruitment, not even full-time equivalent!” Why ? According to the pediatrician, young people are well aware of where they are going to set foot. “There are a lot of constraints in terms of custody, in terms of weekends, in terms of intensity, work, etc. People now also want more personal time and given the many constraints, they are turning away from the hospital”to the detriment of the quality of care.
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