In his latest study, Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, who chairs the Scientific Council on Covid-19, estimates that 20% of the beds in the public hospital are closed for lack of staff. Consequently, “a certain number of units in hospitals are obliged to temporarily close, or to reduce the wing”, recognized the Minister of Health Olivier Véran Wednesday, October 27 in an interview with Release.
“The government continues, for economic reasons, to close beds and cut jobs. This worsens the working conditions of those who remain,” denounced Wednesday on franceinfo Thierry Amouroux, spokesperson for the National Union of Nursing Professionals ( SNPI). “Many caregivers are crushed, crushed by the system, with increasingly difficult working conditions”, testified Thierry Amouroux.
franceinfo: According to Gabriel Attal, the government spokesman, it is a problem of “absenteeism and resignations” which “has been amplified” for “decades”, “especially after the crisis” of Covid-19 and “among paramedics”. Is this diagnosis the correct one?
Thierry Amouroux: No, there are a lot of lies in his words. Over the first two years of the five-year term, they closed 7,000 hospital beds. In 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, they closed 5,700 beds, according to figures from the ministry. In 2021, we are faced with 1.4 billion euros in savings to be made on hospitals under the Social Security financing law passed in December 2020. What scares caregivers away is therefore the continued deterioration of working conditions. The government continues, for economic reasons, to close beds and cut jobs. This worsens the working conditions of those who remain. There are departures linked to that. Then, the more departures there are, the more the working conditions deteriorate and the more the working conditions deteriorate, the more you have new departures. This vicious circle was started by the government, which continued to close beds and cut hospital budgets.
How does this deterioration in working conditions in the hospital manifest itself?
During the first peak, we had six patients with Covid-19 for an intensive care nurse. During the last wave, we were already at eight patients per nurse, that is to say a 30% increase in workload in a year and a half, in a sector as exposed as Covid-19. Imagine the situation in general medicine or general surgery. These working conditions often endanger patients. Caregivers therefore prefer to leave rather than being complicit in this situation. There has been a very significant wave of departures since June 1, with people disgusted by these working conditions.
A thousand students left nursing school before the end of their studies. How to explain these resignations?
You have to understand all the difference between the dream job and the real job in current working conditions. There is a real loss of meaning. We want to be a nurse in the hospital and we are asked to be specialized technicians in a care factory, to chain technical acts that can be checked, while the nurse is also there to take care, support and provide of the helping relationship, of health education, of therapeutic education so that the patient can take part in the care. That’s what turns us off, this loss of meaning, the fact that there are always more savings imposed. There is also a significant absenteeism with many caregivers laminated, crushed by the system, with increasingly difficult working conditions because, between each peak of Covid-19, there is overactivity to try to take care of all chronic patients who were not scheduled during peaks.
What are you specifically asking the government to do to remedy this situation?
Beds must be reopened to take into account the health needs of the population. We have to create positions but with a workload compatible with the quality of care. Finally, we need a salary increase because it was discussed at the time of the Ségur de la Santé. In fact, we have gone from a salary 20% lower than the European average to 10%. There have therefore been efforts by the government, but we continue to be underpaid and exploited, which always leads to departures.
