Unlike the third wave, the intensive care unit at Arras hospital in northern France is not saturated even if the situation remains tense. After more than two years of the pandemic, the medical teams are tired, sometimes worried about a health situation that never ends. The caregivers met do not return this time to the tensions and the lack of resources of the public hospital, they take the time to reflect after two years of health crisis.
The clear eyes veiled with fatigue, the white coat put on hastily, Maxime Granier, 38, is a sensitive doctor. In the intensive care unit of Arras hospital, a slight decrease in the epidemic is felt. Of 30 beds, 13 are occupied by Covid patients and four remain vacant.
In a virus-laden sky, Maxime Granier speaks of a timid clearing. A respite that allows him to take a step back after two years of health crisis. “The serious patients in intensive care brought by the Covid are the most difficult part of the intensive care patients. The most technical, the most complex, the heaviest to manage. They therefore bring one of the strongest emotional charges, with dramatic stories of patients we lose and others for which we manage to fight even harder and survive. he says.
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united in the test
“It’s difficult, but if it’s humanly difficult, it’s also rewarding when we have all, collectively, managed to get a patient like that out…», continues Maxime Granier.
This feeling of having become one with a whole team of caregivers is shared by Stéphane Delporte, health manager. “If the caregivers held up the shock overall on the first waves, it is because they found meaning in what they were doing. Beyond the financial context, they again became caregivers in the noble sense of the term. When they came home, they were caregivers, they were saving lives “, explains Stéphane Delporte.
Maintain the sacred mission of caring
Full beard that overflows from the mask, four-color pen hanging in the pocket, Benjamin Carnez is a nurse in intensive care. According to him, the pandemic has highlighted the state of crisis of the public hospital, but it has also highlighted the sacred mission of caring.
“We have two years of hindsight on the Covid crisis and more than 15 years of hindsight on the management of the hospital. I don’t have the solutions as a simple nurse, but wouldn’t it be time to sit down with various representatives of the bodies practicing in the hospital and director of the public hospital to say to ourselves “we have a beautiful machine, how do we save it?”raises the nurse.
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Head of department, health executive or nurse, they love their hospital and are united. At the end of the report, Maxime Granier heckles like a kid with his two comrades. There are gestures that do not deceive.