A demonstration is organized on Saturday June 23 in Paris to defend small local maternity hospitals. Many establishments are closing, some see their budgets reduced and others are overloaded. Caregivers are worried.
Maternity staff are mobilizing to defend small structures. They demonstrate Saturday, June 23 in Paris to denounce the closures of local establishments. According to The world, more than ten small maternities closed between 2016 and 2018. Several are now threatened with closure in Vierzon (Cher), in Guingamp (Côtes-d’Armor), in Bernay (Eure), Chateaudun (Eure-et-Loir), Bar-le-Duc (Meuse), Remiremont (Vosges), Vire (Calvados), Noyon (Oise), Le Blanc (Indre) or again in Falaise (Calvados).
Work overload
The site France Info investigated the subject and revealed the ill-being of nursing staff. In Vierzon, 25.5 positions have been eliminated, today there is a shortage of staff, so employees have to provide more working days, often days of rest are eliminated. Sometimes the establishments remain but the number of beds is reduced so the staff also. However, it happens that the activity of the hospital starts again thereafter, and the staff runs out.
Large saturated hospitals
The closure of these units is not only a problem for the patients of the surrounding municipalities and for the staff, it creates real imbalances within the departments. A nursing assistant from Toulouse University Hospital explains to France Info that the closure of peripheral maternity hospitals has created a bottleneck in her establishment: “We have more than 5,000 deliveries per year (…) we are overloaded”. In these hospitals, staff are overwhelmed, they have less and less time to devote to patients. “We have less than an hour to spend with each patient (…) in the delivery room and in the emergency room, we eat when we can, if we can.”
Risks for patients
Beyond the discomfort and exhaustion of caregivers, this can create risks for patients. One of the nursing assistants and auxiliary pediatric nurse confides “We have deliveries without an epidural, whereas these are patients who, for nine months, have followed their pregnancy and requested an epidural”.
Hope in Guingamp
Friday, June 22, a decision raised hope among maternity staff. The decision to close the Guingamp maternity unit will be re-examined. The Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn announced that by February 2019, the date on which the establishment should normally close, solutions will have to be found to improve access to care. Without that, motherhood could indeed close its doors.
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