In Toulouse, in clinics, the lack of nursing staff has further accelerated the share of outpatient activity
Despite minimal pressure from Covid-19, some healthcare establishments in Haute-Garonne are struggling to return to normal activity. The lack of nursing staff forces organizations to be reviewed.
Even with a demotion to level 2 of the regional white plan, activity has not returned to its pre-Covid-19 level everywhere. “We are not in a classic configuration. We have not found our way of working before and we will not find them, ”summarizes Fabrice Derbias, director of the Toulouse division for the Ramsay Santé group, which brings together the clinics of L’Union, Croix du Sud (Quint-Fonsegrives) and Les Cèdres (Cornebarrieu) with a capacity of 1,500 beds.
The Covid still occupies a place in the clinics of Haute-Garonne. “We currently have between 25 and 30 Covid patients in our three establishments, half of them in critical care”, details Fabrice Derbias.
The difficulty does not come from this epidemic which lasts but from the always important tension in terms of human resources and which existed before the Covid-19. Everywhere, nurses are missing. There are still nearly 70 to recruit on the three sites. Caregivers are also wanted, particularly on the Cedars site and the situation remains fragile in maternity wards where many midwives have resigned to work as a liberal (a national strike notice is still running for a revaluation of the function) .
Less weekend and night work
“We are impacted to varying degrees by the lack of staff depending on the establishment and we sometimes have to close services on weekends. In fact, the level of ambulatory activity is really accelerated; it now represents two-thirds of our activity, whereas we were at a proportion of just over 50%. This changes our organizations a lot”, explains the director, who confides that an organization more oriented towards outpatients also makes it possible to make certain positions more attractive due to the “rarity of work on weekends and the absence of permanence by night “