ON DECRYPT
After seven months of strike in the emergency room, the unions hope for a show of strength. Thursday, a "big demonstration" is planned in Paris by the unions and the collectives, to claim in particular an increase of the wages and an increase of the workforce. After battling with Bercy, Health Minister Agnès Buzyn should soon announce an extension for the hospital, but the extent must still be arbitrated.
INTERVIEW - Public Hospital: "We come to a breaking point"
Retain staff attracted by the private
In the Social Security financing bill, the government set a 2.1% increase in the budget for the hospital in 2020. An amount very clearly insufficient, say in chorus all the protagonists. The Hospital Federation of France, which includes all public hospitals, claims at least the same treatment as that provided for city medicine, ie + 2.4%. But the strikers are setting the bar much higher. To respond to the crisis, they say, would require an increase twice as strong as the government originally planned, an increase of 4 to 4.5%, which would lead to an extension of one and a half billion to 2 billion euros.
The government knows that it will not be able to get away with limited effort. It will take strong measures, especially to retain the nursing staff who think only one thing: leave the public hospital to live better and earn more in the private sector.