shortage of caregivers at the Sainte-Catherine Cancer Institute, postponed care
The services of the Sainte-Catherine d’Avignon Cancer Institute are saturated. Management is sounding the alarm. There is a shortage of 10 to 15% of the medical staff. This institute manages 3,000 new cases of cancer each year in an area including Vaucluse, Gard and Bouches-du-Rhône.
At the Sainte-Catherine Cancer Institute in Avignon, certain procreation sessions scheduled urgently on an outpatient basis must be postponed.
According to management, there is currently a shortage of 10 to 15% of the medical staff.
We try as much as possible to take care of everyone and that forces us to do the splits all day.
“A lot of patients return to hospital for their treatment and we are faced with the dilemma, to recover a patient in an emergency, it is very difficult to do and of course we try as far as possible to take care of everyone and that forces you to do the splits all day”, explains Dr. Clémence Toullec, medical oncologist in the functional digestive unit at the Sainte-Catherine Institute, interviewed by our journalists Frédérique Poret and Clémence Fournival.
Patients are also seeing longer waiting times to pass medical checks. Three years since, the difficulties have increased at the Sainte-Catherine Institute, which manages 3,000 new cases of cancer each year in an area comprising Vaucluse, Gard and Bouches-du-Rhône.
To compensate for the chronic lack of personnel, Roland Sicard, the president of the Sainte-Catherine Cancer Institute in Avignon, is counting on “the new competences on asking that the doctors can delegate”.
“Advanced practice nurses can take some of the work from our doctors,” he specifies.
“I call for a major political action to accelerate these skills and these recognition of skills”, he adds.
The Avignon Institute treats 13,000 patients each year.