In an open letter addressed to the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, to the Minister of Higher Education Frédérique Vidal, to the director of the AP-HP Martin Hirsch and to the members of the Conference of Deans of Faculties of Medicine, students in health denounce “a system that protects aggressive doctors “ and that “make violence a norm”.
The signatories, associations, collectives and unions, express themselves here freely. The title and the heading are from the editorial staff of franceinfo.
We, student·e · s in health, want to denounce and break with an oppressive, obsolete and violent medical system, which protects aggressive doctors and refuses to question themselves. We want to break the silence and the omerta around the medical violence of which we are witnesses or victims during our hospital internships; in gynecology where they are of particular importance and violence, but also in medicine or surgery.
We want to break with a logic aiming to make people feel guilty and put the blame on the patients·e · s. We are convinced·The importance of a more egalitarian caregiver-patient relationship, where the concepts of respect, listening and consent to examinations and care are essential. Our knowledge and expertise as a caregiver·They do not in any way legitimize violent attitudes or racist, sexist, homophobic, validist, classist, grossophobic or transphobic remarks.
We are aware that some of our actions as a student·e · s in health, in particular those resulting from the traditions “rifles” (frescoes, hazing at the weekend of integration, etc) are also violent and that the questioning must not spare us. We support and believe in patients·They testify to comments, violent acts or attacks from the medical profession.
We want to break with an education system that sets up violence as a norm. Indeed, these studies based on companionship and a strong hierarchy leave us very dependent.·senior·with whom we find ourselves, themselves generally little trained·on these subjects, even violent·e · s. This same system of companionship makes any dissenting opinion difficult to formulate or understand, by pressure for positions, competitions or by constraint of the doctors holding positions of power.
We therefore ask for a greater involvement of the faculties, often poorly equipped and trained to support us. We ask for more training for students·e s but also for tenured physicians required·to teach us the concepts of well-treatment, consent to care and good practices to limit violence and medical discrimination (as recommended in the report of the High Council for Equality dating from 2018). For this, courses in human and social sciences, given by teachers·Researchers in the field and by users of the care system, as well as courses by caregivers·other sectors (for example: midwives in gynecology-obstetrics, physiotherapists in medicine-physical and rehabilitation, etc.) are essential to take out students·e · s and doctors of the medical community.
We also ask the faculties for more transparency and communication about the various internal investigations (in particular the Tenon affair) which are currently taking place behind closed doors, without a student·e s, without patient·e · s, without records and with few apparent consequences.
Finally, we ask for the use of specifc procedures and the creation of independent committees of faculties, the Order of Physicians and health professionals to receive patient complaints.·students and testimonials·e · s in health about the violence which takes place in the medical field.
The petitioners :
Health students (over 1,000 to date).
Stop VOG, association for the fight against obstetric and gynecological violence.
For a MEUF, caregiver association·feminists.
ANCED, To our resistant bodies (endometriosis, struggle and shared knowledge).
Pay your gynecologist.
CoMPAS, Activist collective·es, professional·the, and actor·healthy rices
AAERS, association adenomyosis and endometriosis for scientific research.
Union Syndicale Solidaires, an inter-professional union of unions bringing together those who fight for their demands and for social transformation.
South Social Health Toulouse.