“Is Lola better?” All the better, take good care of yourself. “ By hanging up his phone from the contact tracing platform of the primary health insurance fund (CPAM) in Lormont, near Bordeaux, Eric is satisfied. On this Thursday, January 6, and as the country faces the fifth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, the morning’s incoming calls allow him to realize what motivates him to be part of the Girondins “traceurs”: “To have the impression of being useful for something. “ The 58-year-old former professional tennis player says he found a lot of ” kindness “, contrary to ” individualism “ he knew on the tennis courts.
At his side, Cécile, 38, is one of the benchmarks of the plateau. She supervises new arrivals, supervises their training. She is now employed on a permanent contract by Medicare, following two fixed-term contracts. Previously in charge of a store, she was looking for a job, when a mother from her children’s school suggested this ad. “I feel very useful, even more at this time when it is more complicated with [le variant] Omicron », confides the young woman.
The Gironde platform employs 90 call center agents per day, seven days a week. They can be up to 180 to turn, depending on the evolution of the epidemic. At the end of 2021, 90 people were hired to cope with the sharp increase in the number of Covid cases due to Omicron, but also to replace the workforce. Because the contracts are most often CDD six months, even if some sometimes lead to CDI, according to the budgets of Medicare.
“We have accelerated recruitment since December [2021] », explains Isabelle El Mestari, deputy health director at the Gironde CPAM. Indeed, between December 29, 2021 and January 4, 2022, the platform, which manages the entire department, had to keep pace, with 32,600 patients tested positive. On January 4, the Lormont center achieved its record, with 9,000 patients to be contacted in one day. As of November 15, 2021, they were only 700.
Limit the mixing of populations
To carry out the mission “to test, alert, protect” which falls to it in the face of a highly contagious variant, Medicare has changed its tactics. Now, every citizen who tests positive is not necessarily contacted by an agent. “We had to change dimensions with Omicron, because at the height of 2020, we were at 80,000 cases per day in France. Today, we have passed 300,000 ”, deplores Isabelle Person, responsible for the Gironde tracing platform. A new organization has been set up, where texting is privileged, giving dematerialized access to the CPAM site to those who need a work stoppage. Recommendations are also recalled, in particular those to isolate oneself and prevent contact cases.
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