Organized in support of the striking personnel of the Bastia hospital, the “white march” organized yesterday in the city brought together more than a thousand people.
The situation does not seem close to being resolved in Bastia. While eight hospital employees take turns to lead a hunger strike since October 30, in order to alert on the financial situation of the Bastia hospital center, the “white march” organized in Bastia on Saturday afternoon resembled over a thousand people. It is supported by the establishment’s unions, with the CGT on the front line.
Riddled with debt, the Bastia hospital center is experiencing significant operating difficulties, denounced by the staff. With a deficit of 50 million debts, on a budget of 150 million, it struggles to pay its suppliers and meet its maintenance expenses. To the point that the hospital’s supervisory board, chaired by the autonomist leader Gilles Simeoni, solemnly asked Agnès Buzyn to release funds and start a discussion on the sustainability of the funding.
An electrical context
In February, the Court of Auditors looked into the situation hospitals in Bastia and Ajaccio. With unusual virulence, rue Cambion denounced a deteriorated financial trajectory in spite of exceptional state aid in recent years. She blamed the problem on personnel management deemed too liberal, with additional days off and reduced working time compared to the continent, and demanded an end to these “undue advantages”.
These events are taking place in a tense political context, a few days before the territorial elections to be held on December 3 and 10. The stakes are high, since the outcome of the ballot will determine the power relations within the all new single territorial collectivity of the island, from 1er January 2018. With, at the end of the day, a possible revival of the demands of the nationalist coalition, which has had a majority in the Corsican assembly since 2015. Suffice to say that the file is a thorny knot for the government.
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