All the heads of maternity ward in Paris hospitals “wholeheartedly” support the midwives on strike. They want to get medical status.
Always on strike to gain the status of hospital practitioner, midwives are no longer alone in this fight! All of the maternity ward heads of the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP) indeed come on Tuesday to bring their support “without reservation” to midwives, who have been on strike for three weeks.
Recognition of their skills
“The request they express to have their competence recognized in the form of a medical status of hospital midwives and to no longer be assimilated to non-medical personnel is perfectly legitimate and fully supported by the heads of the maternity units of the “AP-HP, as well as the salary increase in their activity,” these department heads wrote in a press release.
Indeed, even if midwives practice a medical profession, they have always had the status of “paramedical”. This lack of recognition by the authorities is also felt in their remuneration. “The statute of the hospital public service considers us as bac + 3, but we are paid as bac + 2 and a half, with not even the basic salary which corresponds to a license level. The worst thing is that in reality, we have a bac + 5, with a first year of medicine and a four-year training course that follows to become a midwife ”, recently explained Caroline Raquin, president of the National Trade Union Organization. midwives (ONSSF), contacted by why actor.
More than 3 maternities out of 4 on strike
In addition, the heads of service also note that, “the difficulties in operating the maternity hospitals during the strike movement underline the extent to which midwives are irreplaceable and essential to the smooth running of services. ”
Because the cry of anger of these professionals is not only a question of remuneration. In the hospital environment, the latter depend, for the moment, entirely on their head of department concerning the policy of monitoring the pregnancy of pregnant women to be applied. However, in practice, during pregnancies without complications, midwives perform all the procedures performed by hospital doctors specializing in pregnancy (ultrasound, preparation for childbirth, monitoring, etc.). This is one of the reasons that arouses the concern of department heads.
It is true that this strike is already seriously disrupting the functioning of maternity hospitals. On strike lasts in many maternities, midwives are assigned to minimum emergency service. In these establishments, they are now only present in the delivery room. In all the other departments, consultations, pathological pregnancies, postpartum, there is no longer any of these professionals available.
Health Minister continues to ignore movement
Finally, the heads of service “are astonished and worried about the total lack of reaction and listening on the part of the Ministry of Health vis-à-vis this profession, which is highly essential to the quality and safety of the service. public hospital service. It is moreover because of this silence of Marisol Touraine that nearly 150 midwives spent the whole morning of October 26 to camp in front of the buildings of France Televisions, also reproaching to the media TV their lack of visibility to the ‘antenna. Especially since this strike is increasingly followed in the establishments. According to the unions, nearly 75% of French maternity hospitals are now on strike.
For all these reasons, the midwives will demonstrate tomorrow in Paris, between Place Denfert-Rochereau and the Ministry of Health. Once there, the delegation warned that it “will only accept being received by Marisol Touraine. “A book of grievances will also be given to the minister on this occasion,” she said.
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