A new walkout and a demonstration took place in the Emergency Department of the CHU de la Cavale-Blanche in Brest. The staff denounce the deterioration of their working conditions.
Following the ordeal that she would have lived in the emergency room of Cavale-Blanche (Brest) with her 65-year-old aunt, Vanessa Douguet’s open letter at this hospital was shared by nearly 19,000 Internet users on the social network Facebook. Since then, the management of the establishment has come under fire from critics.
Already last Wednesday, an 89-year-old man died on a stretcher in a hallway, while he was awaiting treatment. In this context of sharp tensions, the staff are calling for better reception conditions, patient care and staff work.
According to the site France 3 Brittany, some employees even organized a new walkout (short-term strike) and a demonstration in Brest, in front of the emergency room of the CHU de la Cavale-Blanche. The staff denounce this time a chronic understaffing, especially in this service.
Asked by the regional channel, Guylaine Mille, night medical secretary in the emergency department of the CHRU in Brest, said: “We are monitoring people in the corridor., and we receive the aggressiveness of people 24 hours a day, ”she laments.
A feeling of helplessness
Words that recall the story of Vanessa Douguet: “We got there at 4:15 pm (…) After waiting two hours on a stretcher in the corridor, vomiting and complaining of pain and despite our insistence on staff, nothing was offered to try to relieve her. During this wait, we helplessly witnessed scenes that I would qualify as inadmissible, ”recounts this 32-year-old housewife.
And among the caregivers of this service, it is the same feeling that dominates. “It’s complicated to watch people and not be able to help them. But we don’t have the necessary staff … We have to disregard when we see the suffering people ”, regrets Karine Joubin-Priou.
On this subject, the CGT argues that it lacks, “according to the recommendations of the French Society of Emergency Medicine, 24 nursing stations and 18 nursing assistants, to take care of the 44,000 patients who come annually at the CHU ”.
The management of the hospital defends itself
Asked by The Telegram, the management of the CHRU reacted by recognizing the difficulties, but specified that “despite certain points to improve, the satisfaction rate in emergencies is 72%. We are not satisfied with this rate, but it remains an indicator. The waiting time is still too long, we have set ourselves two hours for the short course and four hours for the long course. But we cannot let it be written that the public service leaves the elderly in suffering without helping them. We cannot let everything be said in a letter and devalue the daily work carried out by the teams, ”she added.
As a reminder, the hospital emergency staff has already walked out for the first time in January 2016, three months after the opening of this new service, in order to denounce their working conditions. “The surface area of the premises has tripled, which means that the staff, who has not increased, spend much more time going from one place to another”, explained the unions at the time ( CFDT, CGT and Sud)
In an open letter to the Brest Hospital, She testifies to “inadmissible” situations experienced with her aunt in the emergency room.
Posted by Why doctor on Wednesday, March 2, 2016
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