In Carhaix, thousands of people demonstrate against the regulation of emergencies at night

Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday October 12 in the streets of Carhaix (Finistère) to demand the 24-hour reopening of the city’s hospital emergency rooms, which are “regulated” every night for over a year due to lack of staff. The demonstrators, gathered at the call of numerous associations, unions and political parties, numbered 3,500 according to the Finistère prefecture and “more than 10,000” according to the organizers.

This town in central Brittany is located about an hour’s drive from Brest University Hospital. The demonstrators believe that the nighttime regulation of emergencies in Carhaix endangers the safety of thousands of residents of the area. Since summer 2023, patients are no longer expected to present spontaneously to the emergency room in the evening and at night. They are asked to call 15 in advance, as is now the case in a growing number of hospitals in France during at least part of the year.

Thanks to the mobilization of the population, unions and local elected officials, a “crisis exit protocol” was signed at the end of October 2023 between the prefecture, the Regional Health Agency, the Brest-Carhaix University Hospital and local authorities. “The State had made a commitment to reopen the emergency rooms of Carhaix 7 days a week, 24 hours a day in the short term”without regulation, recalled Matthieu Guillemot, spokesperson for the Vigilance Committee of the Carhaix hospital. “We are reaching one year from the signing of the protocol, we can no longer talk about the short term.”

“I think we are reaching the end of our patience, which explains the crowd present today.”

Matthieu Guillemot, spokesperson for the Carhaix Hospital Vigilance Committee

to AFP

This demonstration, whose starting point was the hospital, aims to put pressure on the State “so that he keeps his promise”before a meeting scheduled for October 16 between the signatories of the protocol. “I tell you frankly, I cannot imagine that there will be any other decision than the reopening of the emergency rooms in full function on Wednesday”concluded Matthieu Guillemot.