“The hospital is in difficulty,” Health Minister François Braun said Tuesday when he visited Necker Hospital in Paris. For several days, while the bronchiolitis epidemic has spread throughout almost all of France, pediatric services have been saturated and 31 children in intensive care have had to be transferred to other regions due to the lack of beds in the places.
“The situation continues to deteriorate everywhere in France”, can be read in a press release signed by 7,000 people from the pediatric collective, addressed to the President of the Republic on Monday. “The dangers of children are innumerable and daily,” they write.
“We were not prepared” for the bronchiolitis epidemic
The current saturation is due in particular to the arrival of many cases of bronchiolitis, due to the current seasonal epidemic. Thus, more than 1,400 children under two years of age were hospitalized the week of October 17 to 23, 2022, and 4,311 went to the emergency room for cases of bronchiolitis, reports Public Health France in its latest report.
“Bronchiolitis is related to an infection by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This virus is potentially serious for young children” and can lead to hospitalization or even admission to intensive care of the baby, explains the Ministry of Health.
But the current epidemic is “a predictable situation announced from year to year, the bronchiolitis epidemics follow each other and resemble each other,” Vincent Gajdos, deputy head of the general pediatrics unit at the Antoine Béclère de Clamart hospital (Hauts-de -Seine), which ensures that the epidemic is not stronger than last year. “The fact that we are not able to deal with it shows that we are not ready for it,” he says.
“This is the fourth year that we have launched a cry of alarm without being heard, this year we are on the brink of disaster”, also regrets BFM Paris-Île-de-France Stéphane Daugerhead of the intensive medicine service at the Robert-Debré hospital (Paris).
Not inconsiderable baby transfers
In several hospitals in France the white plan has been activated. In fact, services are forced to move babies, for lack of places to house them, sometimes several hundred kilometers from home.
Dylan, father of a baby suffering from bronchiolitis, told BFMTV how his baby was transferred in a SAMU vehicle from Paris to Lille. In October at the Antoine Béclère hospital “we have already made 30 transfers to more than 30 km from the hospital, of which a dozen outside the region”, also explains Vincent Gajdos. Figures higher than previous years according to him.
However, these transfers are not trivial, “an unstable child by definition, the less we move him, the better for him, the more we move him, the more risks we run”, emphasizes Vincent Gajdos. “Fortunately we still manage to cope, but we are not immune to an accident.”
“There is a certain risk in transferring an unstable child to a SAMU truck for several hours,” Jean Bergounioux, head of the department of pediatric neurology and resuscitation at the Raymond Poincaré hospital in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine), abounds on BFMTV. “There are transfers that have been made (from Paris, editor’s note) to Lille this weekend, it’s two and a half hours by car, for an unstable child this is not acceptable.”
Difficulty “finding staff”
The current situation is mainly due to the lack of caregivers in hospitals, who do not find candidates for their job offers. In the pediatric department of La Timone in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), 15% of the beds are closed due to lack of staff. “We don’t have difficulty opening positions, but we do have difficulty finding nursing staff,” laments Hervé Chambost, head of the department of pediatrics and pediatric oncology at the Timone hospital.
“We are overwhelmed because the services lack doctors and especially nurses, so they are forced to close beds,” says Stéphane Dauger.
“I think all this is due to the lack of global recognition of these professions and unfortunately in pediatrics we still need motivated and qualified people,” Normandie Juliette Raghani, a pediatrician in the pediatric emergency department at the University Hospital, tells BFM. of Rouen. “We’re hearing more and more that people are leaving when they loved their jobs, but the operation is getting harder and harder.”
To attract caregivers back to the hospital, “we must urgently give strong signals: attractiveness, meaning for the profession, working conditions, of course also salary increases,” says Vincent Gajdos, who also calls for training more people in pediatrics.
“There is a whole attraction plan to be put in place so that the quality of life at work, the conditions of work organization, make life in the hospital really pleasant for these caregivers”, Hervé Chambost abounds.
“You have to recognize the problem”
Caregivers are calling on the government to act quickly as the bronchiolitis epidemic is still in its early stages and difficulties could mount with the arrival of other winter respiratory viruses.
“The government will provide substantial help,” said François Braun, who receives health professionals on Wednesday, on Tuesday. The executive has already responded by announcing an “immediate action plan” and the release of 150 million euros for “hospital services under tension”. However, it is not yet specified what part of the envelope would go to pediatric services.
“Pediatrics is on its knees”, says Vincent Gajdos, for whom “we must recognize the problem and we must recognize that the policies carried out for more than 20 years but also during the last five years are responsible for the situation. If we don’t, we can’t move forward.”
In the meantime, parents are asked to only go to the emergency room in case of worrying symptoms in their baby, and if not, go to their doctor or pediatrician. “If you have the impression that your baby is particularly embarrassed, both to eat and to hydrate, and shows signs of respiratory distress (…) it is the emergency room that you will have to consult,” explains Stéphane Dauger.
To prevent your baby from getting bronchiolitis, you must respect barrier gestures and prevent the baby from coming into contact with too many people before three months, writes the Ministry of Health.
Source: BFM TV
