How to operate emergencies without temporary workers? For many hospitals, the use of these practitioners is essential to ensure the continuity of the opening of the service. This is particularly the case for Ambert hospital, a rural town in Puy-de-Dôme, on which Emmanuel Macron was interviewed, Wednesday, at the microphone of France Bleu Auvergne. An auditor
called him out on the risk of the service being closed on January 1. The emergency service operates largely with temporary workers, according to local radio.
In his response, Emmanuel Macron defended the Rist law, which allows greater control of the remuneration of temporary workers: “You cannot hold a health collective when you have a service where you have anesthetists who work for 3,000 or 4,000 euros. the month and who have colleagues who resigned a few months earlier and who sometimes only agree to come back to work sometimes […] for more than 1,000 euros per day. You have to put a cap. “
FAKE OFF
20 minutes verified this statement. The orders of magnitude put forward by the President of the Republic correspond to the monthly salary of an anesthesiologist with a few years of experience, around the age of “35-40 years”, specifies Franck Verdonk, president of SNJAR (union of young anesthesiologists resuscitators). The 1,000 euros correspond to a 24-hour call for a temporary worker. A day turns rather around “600 euros”.
Temporary rates which are not always respected, warns Anne Wernet, president of SNPHARE (National Union of hospital anesthetists and resuscitators). “There are guards, for December 24 or 31, for example, when prices go up. “Finding a replacement at short notice, in a period of tension,” is extremely expensive “.
Since 2017, however, there has been a ceiling on the remuneration of temporary doctors. For 2021, it was 1,170 euros for twenty-four hours. However, many actors, including the Ministry of Health, note that this is not always respected. The Rist law, passed in April this year, strengthens controls to avoid these overruns. Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health, has however, for the moment, renounced its application. His ministry
announced in October that it was postponed to 2022, without further clarification on the date.
Anne Wernet and Franck Verdonk are unanimous: it is not the cap or the control of the remuneration of temporary workers that will put an end to the staffing problems in the public hospital. Moreover, “the day when there will not be so much need for temporary workers, prices will collapse”, predicts the president of SNPHARE. “Temporary workers are not a long-term solution, but without a temporary worker there is no anesthesia, therefore there is no surgery, there is no viable hospital”, complete Franck Verdonk.
For Anne Wernet, “the real remedy is to make caregivers want to go to the hospital”. Anesthesia is one of the specialties that uses the most temporary workers, such as already underlined it Olivier Véran in 2013, when he was a deputy.
This specialty, like emergency medicine or gynecology, is distinguished by the need to ensure “continuous care”, recalls the president of SNPHARE. “It eats you up your nights and weekends,” she says. There is also a huge mental load involved in dealing with emergency patients. The trade unionist points to working hours which can exceed 55 hours per week. Franck Verdonk regrets for his part financially “undervalued guards” in the public, where the private sector offers more attractive remunerations.
Recourse to temporary workers does not only have advantages: “Hospital medicine is a team, it is knowing who you are working with,” says Anne Wernet. It is also doing service projects. If you don’t have a team, you can’t make one. If the temporary workers offer essential temporary reinforcements, they do not allow to project on the long term.