Hospital interns are called to strike this Friday to defend their working conditions, which they consider degraded. They denounce extended days and too low wages.
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More than ever, the French hospital is on the verge of rupture. Overworked and underpaid, medical interns are called to strike on Friday April 28 for their wages and working conditions. “Young doctors are in psychological distress“and their working hours”easily exceeds the legal maximum“48 hours a week, warns the Intersyndicale Nationale des Internes (Isni) in a press release on Thursday.
>> Strike in hospitals: “A health system without interns does not work”, warns the vice-president of ISNI
Despite a call to order from the Council of State, hospitals still do not accurately count the hours of their interns. According to the intersyndicale des interns, they work more than 58 hours a week on average, well beyond the legal limit set at 48 hours.
“I saw patients alone while I was in training”
Often, they occupy the place of regular doctors, since there are not enough of them: this is what happened to this young intern in the child psychiatry department of a large Parisian hospital. “For example, during one semester, I was alone in psychiatry. All the work rested on me: I saw the patients on my own while I was in training. I had no supervision,” she explains.
On franceinfo, she also denounces sometimes very complex working conditions and risky situations: “It was a very complicated unit with a lot of physical violence: I have already received a blow from a patient. He was in front of me in the hallway, got agitated and rushed towards me. He shouldn’t have been out of his room then. It’s very trying, it’s very hard. It discourages”she concludes.
Like her, the interns are demanding decent hours, but also a revaluation of 300 euros gross per month (i.e. around 15% increase), a strict count of working time as well as housing aid, depending on the cost of living. ‘real estate. In fact, in certain urban areas, interns are unable to find accommodation and thus lose hours of travel time.
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