"The government must live up to what the hospitals have given" to deal with the coronavirus health crisis. "The real tribute to caregivers would be not to make fun of them with broken promises," warns the president of the French Hospital Federation (FHF), Frédéric Valletoux, in the columns of the Sunday Journal .
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"The first medical desert in France is the hospital"
The upgrading of careers promised by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, "is positive and it is urgent. We must give recognition to nurses, nursing assistants, maintenance workers, by offering them remuneration more decent from the start of their career. It must be up to their social usefulness, "insists Frédéric Valletoux. "The first medical desert in France is the hospital: nearly 30% of positions are not filled there," he recalls, pleading in particular for "reducing the pay gap between public and private, which weakens the hospitals ".
The consultations of the "Ségur de la santé", the name of the street where the ministry is located, will open Monday for seven weeks around the issues of salary increases, but also working time, governance and hospital funding . They will be coordinated by the former secretary general of the CFDT Nicole Notat, and some of the measures selected could appear in the next Social Security budget.
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"The government must learn from past mistakes"
For Frédéric Valletoux, "this is a historic opportunity" and "the government must learn from past mistakes" because, "so far, the reforms have had the art of avoiding real issues, such as funding, rationalization of expenditure through the appropriateness of care or medical deserts. The worst would be a return to technocratic and economic management to the detriment of the real needs of patients ".
Among the demands of the FHF, which will participate in this consultation, Frédéric Valletoux evokes the need to "introduce exceptions to the 35 hours", to "reform management and governance with a 'shock of simplification'", or increase investment in hospitals by "two billion a year".