Hospital practitioners are on strike. They are calling for measures to strengthen the attractiveness of hospital careers.
This Monday, hospital practitioners began a “massive” strike movement. Professionals are mobilizing to demand a better appreciation of their working time and an upgrading of careers at the hospital, faced with a shortage of practitioners.
Professionals were invited to cease their activity on Monday, then every evening and every night, by two inter-union organizations, Avenir Hospitalier and the Confederation of Hospital Practitioners (CPH), which support the movement initially launched by the union of anesthetists- SNPHAR-E resuscitators.
Hospital crisis
According to the union, between 80 and 90% of anesthetists-resuscitators would have followed this strike movement, and between 30 and 40% for other specialties (radiology, surgery, obstetric gynecology, etc.). “We launched a very general appeal, which touched all the specialties”, explains Yves Rebufat, president of SNPHAR-E.
While the hospital is going through a deep crisis, marked by a deterioration in working conditions, practitioners are sounding the alarm: nearly 30% of hospital practitioner positions (PH) are vacant, and the lack of attractiveness of hospital careers threatens to reinforce this phenomenon.
“We have been participating in discussions within the Ministry of Health for four years, specifies Yves Rebufat. A mission on the attractiveness of hospital careers was launched two years ago, but the discussions and proposals were not followed by any concrete measures ”.
Yves Rebufat, president of SNPHAR-E: ” Now is the time to make decisions. The interns are finishing their course and they have to be convinced to stay in the hospital. “
To boost the desire for a career in the hospital, the strikers are calling for better social coverage for all the status of practitioners, especially for young people. “They are particularly poorly covered, especially women, whose pregnancy care is very poorly guaranteed.” Practitioners also want bonuses to be quickly implemented to encourage young people to stay in hospital.
55 hours per week
Another point of tension: the working hours of hospital practitioners, framed by particularly vague regulations. In July 2015, a circular from the Ministry of Health fixed at 48 hours the maximum weekly working time in hospital emergencies. Specialties subject to the same constraints should also fall under this regime, but anesthetists-resuscitators were not included.
“Yet we believe we should be part of it. We work like crazy and we are always asked for more. So we say stop; it must stop, ”insists Yves Rebufat, who mentions an average working time of 55 hours per week among hospital practitioners, and denounces a“ drift ”of the system.
In fact, beyond working hours, anesthesiologists are not the only hospitals to denounce a deterioration in working conditions linked to the profitability objective that the hospital has set itself for a few years, at will. fiscal reforms. “Our profession does not adapt to this pressing productivity; this does not correspond at all to our normal medical activity, ”deplores Yves Rebufat.
Yves Rebufat, president of SNPHAR-E: ” Since the hospital financing system has changed, we have adopted a productivist logic. We chose this career to do skincare … “
However, the strike movement should not have an impact on the continuity of care, as doctors are requisitioned so as not to disrupt services. Planned surgeries could possibly be postponed. “But this will be the only concrete translation of this strike for the users”, assures Yves Rebufat.
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