Many sectors are faced with the phenomenon of the great resignation, with employees leaving to find better elsewhere. But among them, a crucial profession is hit hard: paramedics. And the unions are particularly worried.
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The phenomenon is getting worse. Last year, there was already a shortage of 8,000 paramedics in France. The figure has almost doubled to 15,000 vacancies, impossible to fill.
>> Lack of manpower: these working conditions that hinder candidates
Since the health crisis, the profession, 50% feminized, has suffered an exodus. A great wave of resignations because of the working conditions which are not easy, the paramedics are mobilized 24 hours a day, the difficulty is real and above all, the main cause lies in too low wages. They were increased by 7% this year, but this increase was absorbed by the rise in the minimum wage. Result: it scared the staff away. Problem, companies can not do what they want, the rates are set by the Health Insurance.
The profession is therefore mobilizing to recruit. The National Chamber of Ambulance Services has just made several proposals public. The first is to create a professional paramedic baccalaureate. The idea is to be able to recruit young people from the age of 17 or 18. However, it currently takes three years of license to be able to become a paramedic. Young people therefore leave for other sectors and it is difficult to get them back afterwards. This professional baccalaureate would make it possible to train younger paramedics and to remove the obstacle of the three-year probationary license.
Another idea that emerges: to create bridges between this profession and other health professions. Today the turnover is important in the profession. We leave after five to seven years. Dominique Hunault, the president of the national chamber of ambulance services explains that thanks in particular to the validation of acquired experience, the famous VAE that the government wants to boost to fight against unemployment, it could be possible more easily for paramedics to join trades as caregivers, nurses or emergency physicians. Bridges should be created to create vocations, start as an ambulance driver and then pursue a career in health professions.
There is a danger because according to the National Chamber of Ambulance Services, if nothing is done to combat the shortage of paramedics, it is the most fragile and the most isolated who will no longer be able to go to hospital.