France: demonstration of angry caregivers near the Ministry of Health
Audio 01:18
The French Ministry of Health, in Paris.
AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
A few thousand people marched this Saturday, December 4, near the French Ministry of Health, in Paris, to demand an end to bed closures in public hospitals and better working conditions for caregivers.
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White coats, black anger.
They are several thousand braving the rain this Saturday.
A watchword: more resources for the public hospital.
“
We want beds!
Posts !
They shout.
"
It's tiring, it's poorly paid, it's not rewarding at all,"
explains Dr Bérénice Chediot, responsible for pediatric emergencies at Corbeil-Essonnes.
Exhausted teams with a greater influx of patients to the emergency rooms so we are in a vice, and the only consequence of that is that the quality of care in our emergency rooms is declining with everyone's arms hanging down.
And we are starting to get really mad.
"
Three nurses have left her service since September, they have changed jobs.
For lack of candidates, they were not replaced.
The hospital no longer attracts.
"
It's not interesting,"
explains Sadi Bencherif, stretcher bearer at Rothschild hospital and member of the Inter-Hospitals Collective.
When you have vaccination clinics where people are paid three times what they are paid in public health, all that to advance vaccination - which I understand perfectly - is at the same time undressing Paul to dress Jacques.
This is one of the realities which prove that the public hospital is not financially attractive.
"
The demonstration ended in front of the gates of the Ministry of Health, where a delegation was received.
Pascal Grandet was there.
"
We regret that it was Minister Véran who chose not to receive us, and to have us received by an advisor who was charming, but this was not quite our expectation,
" he confides.
The organizers are already calling for a new demonstration next Saturday.
In Paris pic.twitter.com/AJhdNZwryT
- COLLECTIF INTER-HOPITAUX (@CollectInterHop) December 4, 2021
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