“There are 60,000 vacant nursing positions in hospitals”, worries Thierry Amouroux

“We are worried because we are facing a significant staff shortage”, declared on franceinfo, Sunday, December 19, Thierry Amouroux, spokesperson for the National Union of Nursing Personnel, while the fifth wave of Covid-19 continues to rise in hospitals.

“There are 60,000 vacant nursing positions in hospitals today, and of those that remain, 10% are on sick leave due to burnout or depression.”, he noted.Thierry Amouroux recalls that the hospital has experienced a wave of departures since June. He observes that caregivers “are exhausted, it’s been since February 2020 that we have been under pressure with the Covid”. Especially since between the epidemic waves, “we must take care of chronic patients who have been deprogrammed”.

According to Thierry Amouroux, these departures are largely linked to the fact that some caregivers have been “disgusted by the government”who has “continued to implement savings plans in hospitals, we are the only country that has closed beds during an epidemic.” According to the Ministry of Health, 5,700 beds were effectively closed in 2020.

For those who remain, the situation becomes more and more complicated. During the first wave, the spokesperson for the National Union of Nursing Personnel Explain “that there were six Covid patients per nurse, and in the last wave there were eight.” Departures then maintain “a hellish circle because the more the load increases, the more departures you have, but the more departures, the more the workload increases.”

The doubling of overtime pay announced by Jean Castex will not be sufficient according to him. : “It will make it possible to solve certain specific problems for very poorly paid caregivers”, he recognizes, “But it must be understood that asking exhausted people for overtime increases the risk of errors in care.”