INTERVIEW
The sum is substantial, but does not yet convince the unions. Wednesday, a month after the opening of the "Ségur de la santé", Minister Olivier Véran proposed an increase in the remuneration of non-medical hospital staff, with an envelope of six billion euros to increase these salaries. But on Europe 1, Thursday, the general delegate of the Hospital Federation Zaynab Riet expressed concern that this envelope should be shared with the private sector, and asked for more resources. For health economist Fréderic Bizard, if the government wants to end the crisis, it must tackle other ills that are undermining the public hospital, such as excessive centralization or career reform.
"The salary increase is only one element among others of a return to attractiveness in the public hospital", explains this specialist. "Public hospitals suffer from a lack of attractiveness, certainly linked to an austerity policy on wages for the past ten years," he readily admits. But, he adds, a revaluation of wages "cannot be enough to regain attractiveness".
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"There is a real problem of internal and external governance"
What, then, are these other issues that the executive should tackle? "There is a real problem of internal and external governance, which means that we have a form of institutional abuse experienced as such by staff", develops Frédéric Bizard. In addition, there is also the problem of careers in hospital, "which have not changed in 70 years, and no longer really represent an ideal for the younger generations". Without strong decisions on these subjects, the health economist fears "an endless continuation, and that we will not succeed in meeting the demands of the unions in the short term".
Because the policy for the public hospital cannot be satisfied with salary increases, underlines Frédéric Bizard. He takes the example of nurses, who are paid less in the private sector than in the public (and even when in the public, they are among the lowest paid in Europe), but who work in "a better work environment", the private sector being affected by "less social tensions".
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"There needs to be decentralization of the decision-making circuit"
The guest of Europe 1 pleads for "a decentralization of the decision-making circuit". For the past ten years, "we have considered that there was only one chief at the hospital, the director of the hospital, that is to say an essentially administrative profile. We centralized the decision (...) and the healthcare professionals have a fairly marked feeling of being completely dispossessed of all power of action and decision, whereas it is they who have the knowledge of the field, the relationship with the patients ".
Without a "rebalancing of powers", Frédéric Bizard fears that these 6 billion euros represent only a "breath of fresh air for a few months". And to conclude: "It gives the impression that we want, with billions of dollars, to allow public hospitals to live in a deeply degraded environment".