at the Meulan-Les Mureaux hospital, emergency workers on strike to demand an additional position

Emergency staff at this Yvelones hospital have started an indefinite strike to denounce the lack of staff. Management responds that there are not enough visits to the emergency room to create a night nurse position.

The emergency department of the Meulan-Les Mureaux hospital in Yvelines has been on strike since Monday January 8 at 2 p.m., an unlimited movement to demand an additional position: a night nurse, which is sorely lacking according to the strikers . This strike movement could have repercussions for users throughout the sector.

Cécile, Najet and Sarah dance in front of the emergency entrance to warm up, the atmosphere is joyful except when two members of management come to propose a meeting to the strikers, it took place and resulted in nothing: still no position additional nurses at night in the hospital emergency room, and this has consequences for patients.

Last Friday, we had five serious patients at the same time, we had to make choices because there were only three of us.

Cécile, emergency striker

at franceinfo

“And when we called management, the response was: ‘We don’t have any staff.’ Since on the floors, they are always at a minimum, there is only one nurse for 28 patients. So no one can come and help us”, says Cécile, who has worked in the establishment for 8 years.

Tensions in the waiting room

When the nurse who is supposed to be at reception disappears to care for a patient, it causes tension in the waiting room, Najet regularly pays the price. “I was busy with a patient in a room, where I stayed for an extremely long time”she remembers. “And the patients accumulated at reception for almost an hour. So a wait of an hour before being seen by the reception nurse to assess them. When I arrived an hour later , I was insulted, they yelled at me.”

Management believes that there are not enough visits to the Meulan-Les Mureaux emergency room to create a night nurse position. Sarah does not agree and is ready for a showdown: “We don’t give up. I’m ready to fight this fight for a month, two months, three months. It’s the fight of my life.”

Why did I do this job? For patients. I will not accept that patients are further mistreated by the institution. We won’t give up.

Sarah, emergency striker

at franceinfo

Most of the strikers are assigned to their posts, for the moment the service is functioning but the movement could harden and lead to a load of emergencies at the hospitals of Mantes-la-Jolie and Poissy which are already under tension themselves.