At the AP-HM, we fear “not being able to manage” the Omicron wave

“The tension is not easing. It doesn’t go up, but it doesn’t go down. The observation of Professor Jean-Luc Jouve, president of the medical establishment commission of the Public Assistance of Hospitals of Marseille (AP-HM) is final. For several weeks, the number of patients admitted to the AP-HM due to coronavirus has not been empty. Last week, the epidemiological figures broke records. On Monday, 246 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Marseille hospitals, against 222 the previous week.

“The saturation of intensive care units is still 90%,” notes Professor Jouve. The situation remains very tense. And we are looking at what is happening abroad with the Omicron variant. In the United Kingdom, when Omicron became the majority, reception capacities had to be doubled. If we arrive at a similar situation, we will have great difficulties, and things may go badly in the coming weeks. We will not be able to manage all these hospitalizations. We will be able to increase our capacities, but in a degraded manner. “

“Everything is paralyzed by the unvaccinated”

“We are very ignorant and we do not really know what to think, sighs Sabine Valéra, intensive care nurse at the North hospital and president of the federation of intensive care nurses. We are saturated with Delta. If Omicron goes over it, it will become very complicated… ”A situation that Marseille doctors attribute in particular to the low vaccination coverage in Marseille. This Monday, in a column published in Provence, no less than 500 doctors have called on the Marseillais to be vaccinated. “And yet, since the publication, with the return of holidays, we have had 200 more,” says Jean-Luc Jouve. This forum was a request from the medical community, which evoked its dismay at the face of people who were reluctant to be vaccinated. “

And to affirm: “Everything is paralyzed by a public composed mainly of non-vaccinated. In the two intensive care units of Timone, 86% and 100% of patients are unvaccinated. It’s enormous. “” In my unit, 17 beds out of 24 are occupied by Covids, and many are unvaccinated “, confirms Sabine Valéra, who confides a certain” incomprehension “of her colleagues. “But at this point, with people who don’t want to be vaccinated, I don’t think the pedagogy will make a difference. “And sigh:” We really live from day to day. “