We must change the way we manage the epidemic and reduce the isolation of health workers, otherwise we will be condemned to see overcrowded hospitals and we are already “load shedding will increase further when we are in the process of cutting muscle”, he pleaded. Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec (FMSQ), dR Vincent Oliva. With the Omicron variant, “more infection but less virus”, COVID-19 “no longer the same disease during the first wave”, added in an interview with Dr. Press.
Posted at 5:00 p.m.
DR Oliva said “the situation has become critical” in Quebec hospitals. “You saw the congestion of hospitals. Load shedding means that medicine in PAZ is not bad, ”he said.
For dR Oliva, along with the Omicron variant, is not a disease that COVID-19 was two years ago. “We are of the opinion that we are still following the same habits as before. With the same protocols,” said D.R Oliva.
People need to know that this is a different disease. It is a mutated virus, which means that it no longer has the same symptoms and no longer affects patients in the same way.
DR Vincent Oliva, President of the Federation of Specialist Physicians of Quebec
The second is not to underestimate the virus. “It changes the disease profile of patients,” he said, adding that it was important to continue vaccinating. But he points out that the Omicron variant is “more contagious, but less viral”. And we have to “handle it differently”. “If we continue to manage this like the previous waves, we’ll see hospital admissions, hospital beds closing … we have not yet reached the maximum level and we are at level shedding level 4 in many hospitals, and we have started talking about level 5. level 5, which means we have an emergency. We need to start treating patients less and take action. And for me, it is imperative to change the way we work. ”
Reducing the isolation of health workers
DR In particular, Oliva believes that a greater number of asymptomatic health care workers should return to work. However, the government is already allowing these workers to return to work in the event of a service disruption. “But in practice, we do not do much”, dR Oliva believes these returns should be allowed “systematically”.
According to him, prevention of health care workers who are in contact with positive cases should be stopped. We must stop systematically testing asymptomatic health workers for prevention.
We need to bring workers back to the health network immediately.
DR Vincent Oliva, President of the Federation of Specialist Physicians of Quebec
According to a table released by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday, 50% of positive patients currently hospitalized in Quebec are due to COVID-19. The rest were hospitalized for another reason, but were positive for the virus. For dR Oliva, placing positive patients with COVID-19 major disease on red floors is justified. But for positive patients who are hospitalized for another condition and have some of the symptoms of COVID-19, “they do not need to be kept on the COVID floor.” These patients must, according to DR Oliva, should be treated on their normal floor, but the staff should take good care of themselves.
DR Finally, Oliva believes that patients who are waiting for a place in CHSLD or in a retirement home and who have certain symptoms may return to these settings more easily. There are more than 1,700 patients in this province. DR With the vaccine and the variant, Oliva stated, “the risk is greatly reduced” because it was not as viral as it was initially. By keeping many of these patients in the hospital, “what you are doing is preventing other patients from getting care.” And it’s a risk we do not consider, but it’s very important in my opinion and among my colleagues. ”R Oliva.
“No risk”
DR Oliva did not deny it: hospitals are overflowing right now. But most importantly, according to him, because “there are too many patients for the number of workers”. “That’s why I tell you, if we can bring workers back to the network by managing differently […], It changes the relationship between patients and workers, ”he said in hospitals and in the living environment of the elderly.
For the FMSQ, we need to understand that “zero risk, does not currently exist” and that we must “get out of the concept of perfect medicine” because we are in crisis.
To want to be so perfect with Kovid and to pay so much attention to how we treat these patients is to neglect other patients. And this is an element of very important risk.
DR Vincent Oliva, President of the Federation of Specialist Physicians of Quebec
DR Oliva said there were already unseen consequences from offloading and postponing screening tests. “We are already beginning to see a slight decline behind the diseases that are developing. We need to be aware of this and change the way we approach this disease, which will not be like the beginning of the epidemic.”
