“Absenteeism has never been so high. It is higher than during the Covid period. It is worrying as the summer period approaches”, alerted Etienne Martinot, departmental secretary Force Ouvrière Santé in Pas-de-Calais, Thursday April 28 on franceinfo. While in Hauts-de-France, hospitals are triggering their white plan to allow the massive remobilization of hospital staff, he wanted to recall that “the white plans do not solve the basic problems, namely the problems of staffing” faced by hospitals.
“It is the first time that we have seen in April, in the spring, such strong absenteeism”confirmed for his part Frédéric Valletoux, president of the Fédération Hospitalière de France, on franceinfo. “What’s it going to be like this summer?”he wondered with concern, while Etienne Martinot mentioned “terrifying holiday” for hospitals, and in all services, if the government does nothing. “The government will have to take rapid, emergency measures, because hospitals will have to close services, beds”he warned. “It is all the more worrying that, and this is a consequence of the Covid, the agents are exhausted”he continued.
“We are in a general situation of lack of personnel which is not new”
Frédéric Valletoux, Frédéric Valletoux, President of the French Hospital Federationfranceinfo
“The Covid has damaged a hospital that was already sick before entering the crisis”added Frédéric Valletoux, considering that “the first of its weaknesses is the lack of staff”. For the departmental secretary FO Health, the situation is above all “the consequence of government policy” conducted “for more than 10 years”. “We are damaging the image of the public hospital. We are destroying the public hospital fabric and that is serious”he protested. “We see caregivers who left during the Covid crisis, it was not huge waves, but it could be more important if tomorrow we don’t show very quickly that we are taking the subject head on”added Frédéric Valletoux, calling on the government “to tackle fundamental reforms”.
In the meantime, and to avoid a failure of the public hospital this summer, the president of the Fédération Hospitalière de France has called for a reorganization of leave: “In an emergency, we are not going to bring out 25,000 health professionals, it will take time, but we can already take measures”, he assured. He thus proposed “to organize the permanence of care with city medicine” and “to organize holidays territory by territory so that everyone does not leave at the same time”especially in August. “I’m not saying: ‘Don’t go on vacation’, I’m saying: ‘Let’s organize the schedules'”he specified. “We are able, in France, to organize the permanence of the bakeries, but we are not able to organize the permanence of the doctors?”he launched.
The two men also agreed to say that wage measures are also “required”. “There have been some with Ségur, they have been of historic magnitude, 10% net salary increase, we may have to continue”assumed Frédéric Valletoux, while Etienne Martinot described this increase as insufficient. “We will have to go further than Ségur”concluded the Force Ouvrière secretary, referring to an increase of around 25%, “it has to be done no matter what”.