“We get a little bored sometimes!”, Faced with deserted vaccination centers, the disarray of caregivers

Rows of empty chairs in the room of the vaccination center and nurses talking among themselves. In Lespinasse, north of Toulouse, the meetings were linked in early January. But in recent days, thes vaccination centers are much less full, despite a number of infections always very high.

Concretely, the drop is estimated at at least 20% compared to the usual vaccination rate, according to the head of the center interviewed by franceinfo.

“VSsure it’s less addictive than usual!”, entrusts Valentin, a student, who has been part of the vaccination team since last summer. “Sometimes, we don’t have time to sit down, we juggle between all the positions, sorting, vaccination, etc. And there, it is true that it is much calmer. We get a little bored sometimes! “

Here, we are currently vaccinating around 300 people per day, while 500 slots are normally available. And when the phone rings, it’s not to make an appointment but to cancel it. The fault of the Covid itself according to the professionals on site: Haute-Garonne currently has the highest incidence rate in France with nearly 5,000 per 100,000 inhabitants. Result: positive people and contact cases cancel their appointment.

“On was full in two weeks, until the end of February, all slots were taken. And in the end, we can’t reach our 500 doses because there are a lot of patients who cancel or who don’t come because of having had Covid or being in contact… The problem is that patients are often in contact from week to week. It only shifts the problem“.

This is particularly felt in children: a third of young patients did not honor the scheduled appointments, Tuesday, February 1, with Doctor Isabelle Evenou. It must therefore adapt, especially for doses that require specific storage.

“We are preparing the vaccines as we go… We are really waiting for people to prepare them so as not to have too many losses.”

Isabelle Evenou

at franceinfo

The team has also been reduced on site: two people have been redeployed to the screening center next door, which is full.