In the demonstration of June 16, 2020 in defense of the public hospital and carers, in Toulouse. - B. Colin / 20 Minutes

  • Thousands of caregivers across France demonstrated on Tuesday to demand progress for hospital and nursing home workers.
  • While the Ségur de la santé has started, they are demanding more human resources and wage increases.
  • In Toulouse, several thousand people beat the pavement to the Hôtel-Dieu, headquarters of the Toulouse University Hospital.

In Toulouse, thousands of white blouses have decided to walk to the Hôtel-Dieu on this sunny Tuesday afternoon. Some are from the public, others from the private, from trauma or psychiatry, from the Tarn or from the depths of the Haute-Garonne. Regardless, all have one thing in common: these caregivers came to shout their unhappiness in the streets of the Pink City and under the windows of the management of the Toulouse University Hospital. All are calling for more resources and a "break" as the health crisis recedes.

“During the crisis, the applause did good, but now what is needed is the support of the population. What is needed is more human resources. During the crisis, we had almost 10 caregivers for 10 Covid patients, it is now that we find ourselves in reduced numbers and all the patients that we could not receive during the crisis we now have them ”, deplore together Jean-Pierre, Ingrid and Joëlle. Nurses and nursing assistants in Rangueil or Purpan, all three regret that today “we no longer talk about quality of care”.

“It is difficult to achieve physical or relational quality with the short time that we have. We know that half an hour of attention to a patient can sometimes avoid a morphine blister. By cons when it comes to having new accreditations, there he finds the means, "regrets" JP ". Like his colleagues, he thinks that the government and the management of hospitals play on their "professional conscience". "They know very well that we will stay for the patient."

"The applause is good, now what is needed is that the population continues to support us", Jean-Pierre nurse at #Toulouse # manif16Juin #HopitalPublic pic.twitter.com/yc7bqxRSD3

- 20 Minutes Toulouse (@ 20minutestoul) June 16, 2020

Acting nurse without bonus

This investment, Charlotte proved during the coronavirus crisis. This temporary nurse in two clinics in the Toulouse conurbation has gone up to Paris to reinforce the resuscitation teams overloaded by the cases of Covid-19. There she met Marie, a caregiver. During this very special period, almost in a vacuum, they established a friendship, to the point that Marie was in Toulouse on vacation this week. And it was together that they came to demonstrate their desire to see things change.

We work 12 hours during which we don't have time to go to the bathroom, we lack means and that increases the stress and the error can happen quickly ”

Charlotte continues: “Now in our profession, this means that you can kill someone. All this for 12.5 euros an hour while doing babysitting I get 15 an hour. The young woman admits that she is "bored" today. And this is felt even in his professional choices. “There is a lack of equipment and personnel which means that in the emergency room we find ourselves with 90-year-olds in the corridor and families who are aggressive. We are not proud. Suddenly, we invest less, we see that it does not change so it is we who change, that is why I am acting, “recognizes this nurse. This did not prevent her from going to the front in this "war" against the coronavirus. But as a temporary worker she was not entitled to the bonus.

But rather than talking about bonuses, both would prefer to increase basic wages. “We should have a more decent salary for what we do. When they go on strike at the SNCF, they stop the trains, we if we go on strike, we are requisitioned, we would have done that during the Covid, we might have had this increase of 300 euros, ”notes Marie.

100,000 hires needed in the public hospital?

Human resources demanded for years by the unions very mobilized in recent weeks so that recognition does not remain at the stage of words and applause.

“We want means not medals”, Pauline Salingue, CGT union delegate at the CHU de #Toulouse # manif16Juin #HopitalPublic pic.twitter.com/N1UqVxmDFS

- 20 Minutes Toulouse (@ 20minutestoul) June 16, 2020

"We are not asking for medals, we are not asking for bonuses, we are not asking for holiday vouchers but really for the means of good care, today we are asking for the means so that health personnel are not mistreated at work like they have been for years and as they have been able to be even more so in recent months with the absence of protective equipment for many of them, ”argues Pauline Salingue, CGT union delegate at the Toulouse University Hospital.

She estimated that it would be necessary to hire at the national level nearly 100,000 people in public hospitals, including 1,500 in Toulouse.

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  • Demonstration
  • Social
  • Health
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • Hospital
  • Toulouse
  • Society