From February 8 to 11, some patients had to be sent to other care structures due to the absenteeism of several caregivers. olrat / stock.adobe.com
After the multiplication of sick leaves, the workforce has returned to normal at the hospital. Discussions are ongoing between management and health staff.
Le Figaro Nantes
If they have returned to work, they are not cured for all that. From February 8 to 11, nearly half of Nantes’ emergency care aides and nurses found themselves on sick leave for a period ranging from 48 hours to two weeks. After consulting their doctor at the same time, they were arrested for professional exhaustion. The reception of patients had not been interrupted even if certain services had been temporarily closed. Since then, most of them have returned to their white coats. “It’s like nothing happened“, laments a returning staff.
On February 15, an exceptional establishment social committee brought together members of the management of the Nantes University Hospital, unions and caregivers, to discuss this unprecedented situation. “Dialogue is maintained between teams and management, to ensure continuity of care, but also to improve the working conditions of professionals“, indicated to the Figaro the management of the CHU.
«It is the tocsin of professional exhaustion and institutional mistreatment that once again, management makes the decision not to listen, not to take seriously“, denounce for their part the professionals who participated. In their initial demands, they asked in particular for more beds, in order to “to remove endless hours of waiting on a stretcher», the hiring of additional personnel or financial recognition of their work.
On strike since October, and faced with a breathlessness of the movement, they intend to remobilize the troops. Among their ideas, they think of rallying doctors to their cause or even stopping performing the tasks they perform when they shouldn’t.
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A letter to the minister, another to the prosecutor
In the meantime, the nurses and nursing assistants remain supported, in particular by the deputy Andy Kerbrat (LFI-Nupes) of the second district of Loire-Atlantique, on which the CHU is located. On Friday, he wrote to the Minister of Health: “Do you consider health personnel as disposable agents, usable until exhaustion? What do you intend to do, Mr. Minister, to stop sick leave and cascading departures, a consequence of the mistreatment of caregivers?, he asks in this missive to which François Braun must respond within two months. More broadly, this letter is an invitation to him: “Let him come and see the situation, let him succeed in obtaining budgetary arbitration“, details at Figaro the rebellious deputy. Quoting his colleague François Ruffin, the one who follows the situation of caregivers closely invites the minister to “get out of the language of wood» pour «take out the checkbook».
Trade unions are also mobilized. “We wrote back to the public prosecutor because today, we can no longer continue to see 40 hours of waiting on stretchers. Patients are in danger, like hospital diplomasdeclares to Figaro Tony Gilbert, General Secretary of the Nantes CHU FO union. It is not “understandable” that the public hospital is at the end of its breath.
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On Saturday, he alerted the prosecutor to the pediatric emergency situation: “caregivers alone face daily endangerments and a glaring deterioration in the care provided to children“, it is mentioned in particular. Three weeks ago, his union had already warned the magistrate of the degraded conditions of care in adult emergencies, in particular due to “delay in care with endangerment of the life of others”. The representative of the trade union organization indicates that another meeting is planned with the management of the CHU about the situation of the psychiatric staff, who have also been affected by the concomitant sick leave.
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