The aim of the '#YesWeCare’ campaign, symbolised by a minute’s silence observed by hospital staff, is to give themselves courage, to show that they are not alone, and to explain what working in a hospital is like at the moment. It is also an opportunity to make an appeal: vaccination helps to avoid overwhelming the health system.
On Thursday, the staff of Luxembourg’s various hospitals observed a minute’s silence for the second time. At 12 noon sharp, about thirty members of staff of the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL) stepped outside of their hospital in Strassen.
Read also: Weekly review: Close to 80% of people above the age of 12 are now vaccinated
Pedestrians passing by spontaneously thanked them. One man even handed out chocolates. Moments like this help to lift the mood a bit, say Janine Jacoby and Sandra Terracchio. They work in the laboratory and participated in the #YesWeCare event for the first time on Thursday. They found it moving to be able to show solidarity with their colleagues.
This action also aims to send a message to the outside world: there is still a lot of work to be done while society hopes to leave the pandemic behind in the foreseeable future. It is not new that hospitals are busier in winter, but the workload has increased significantly with Covid-19.
Dr Pierre Braquet explained that there are fewer patients in hospital this year than last winter, which is due to vaccination. Even if the number of new infections is high, there are fewer seriously ill patients.
With a similar seven-day incidence rate in 2020, the hospitals had more than triple the number of patients in standard care and double the number in intensive care. Frank Gils, head nurse in the intensive care unit, has personally observed that the unvaccinated patients are younger and that the large majority of vaccinated patients have pre-existing conditions.
This is why booster shots are so important, particularly for the elderly or vulnerable. Currently, however, caregivers are also noticing a new patient profile, according to Dr Jean Reuter, a physician in the intensive care unit. In intensive care, the average age of non-vaccinated patients is between 40 and 60.
Looking at the health statistics reveals that of the people who had to be hospitalised because of Covid-19, 85% are over 40 (as of 09 December 2021). For patients in intensive care, the rate of those over 40 is 93%.
The hospital staff would like to repeat the #YesWeCare action on a regular basis to give more visibility to their daily work.
Video report by RTL Télé (in Luxembourgish):
