After a week of “sick leave”, emergencies emerge from the crisis

Emergencies with more than 90% sick leave for a week. This is the scenario experienced by the emergency department of the Pontoise hospital (Val-d’Oise) last week. To denounce the lack of staff and resources, the caregivers had chosen this mobilization. They resumed work on Monday after an “agreement” to end the crisis was found, announces the UNSA union. An increase in staff to facilitate admission to emergencies, manage administration and strengthen the night team has been recorded, i.e. “15 full-time equivalents”, welcomed the union.

“Last week gave rise to several meetings with the team, staff representatives and hospital management to reach an agreement around a new medical and paramedical project which will be deployed in the coming weeks. “said in a press release the UNSA public and private social health, which supported the movement. Contacted, the hospital did not respond to AFP’s requests.

A movement not isolated

On January 9, in the early morning, most of the adult emergency caregivers at the Pontoise hospital had filed sick leaves to denounce their working conditions and the degraded care of patients. They were mainly staff from hospital services, nurses, stretcher-bearers and orderlies from day and night shifts.

Sometimes, “there are more than twenty hours of waiting in the emergency room to already see a doctor and that the nurses install the patients in a consultation room”, had denounced on condition of anonymity an experienced caregiver, tired of seeing patients. “on stretchers in the emergency room, in the hallway”.

The emergencies had remained open despite these defections, but the regional health agency (ARS) of Ile-de-France had announced a “regulation”, or a refusal of certain patients in this hospital to direct them to surrounding structures. The movement is not isolated since similar tensions have affected eastern France for several weeks, in particular the emergencies of Sarreguemines, Thionville and Saint-Avold in Moselle.

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