Rémi Salomon, head of the pediatrics department at the Necker hospital in Paris, regrets on franceinfo that the extension of 400 million euros allocated to pediatrics by the government is only temporary.
By providing an additional 400 million euros to the hospital, “the government has heard the cry of alarm from paediatricians”says on franceinfo Thursday, November 3 Rémi Salomon, head of the pediatric department of the Necker hospital in Paris.
“After the 150 million which was a first step, we must welcome the extension”, recognizes the Parisian pediatrician, who however specifies that “it is a temporary extension, since it is an increase in night hours for nurses, paramedics and doctors”. The extension of the summer measures was announced by the Minister of Health François Braun on Tuesday 2 November. It runs until March, “to get through the winter which promises to be particularly difficult”. The hospitals in Bordeaux, Rouen, in Ile-de-France, are currently saturated, in particular because of the epidemic of bronchiolitis.
But the bronchiolitis epidemic is not the problem, according to Rémi Salomon. The arduous work, the lack of beds and nurses will not stop next March. “The government still took the Ségur measures, which were a fairly large envelope”, recalls the pediatrician, with in particular 9 billion euros dedicated to salary increases. But the Ségur did not take into account “the permanence of care, i.e. night work, or weekends and public holidays”. The extension announced by François Braun must now “be made permanent”, claims the head of the pediatric department of the Necker hospital in Paris.
Enough to attract new caregivers back into the public service ? “Obviously we won’t have them right away”warns Rémi Salomon.
“People will come back! The job of caregivers, doctors, paramedics, nurses is exciting, exciting. […] Provided they are given the means to do their job well.”
Remi Solomonat franceinfo
Another solution to alleviate the problem of shortage in the public hospital, to bring in more carers from abroad, thanks, perhaps, to the bill on immigration: the government wants to set up residence permits for foreigners who exercise “jobs in tension”. “We are already bringing in a lot of doctors from abroad“, emphasizes Rémi Salomon.
“Doctors trained in the Maghreb, the Middle East, Central Europe. Without them, many services in France would not work.” Except that France no longer attracts as before, according to the pediatrician: “We also did that in the 1990s. Nurses came from Spain. Today in Spain, they have better salaries than in France. would have a hard time getting them to come“, slips into a yellow laugh Rémi Salomon.