A strike notice was filed by the resuscitation staff of the Hospices Civils de Lyon from Monday.
In particular, the CGT Santé asks for "more staff in a sustainable way", in order to best resist the current health crisis.
"We are on our knees even before starting this second wave of Covid-19", confides an intensive care nurse at the Lyon Sud hospital.
The CGT of the Hospices Civils de Lyon "hoped to have been heard" during its "positive" meeting on Friday with the general management of the HCL.
But "an evasive and administrative statement" from the latter did not meet the expectations of the intensive care and critical care services of the HCL, which in the process maintained their strike notice from Monday.
"There is no question of wage demands in this strike, which is a distress call," said Benjamin Berthet, intensive care nurse at the Lyon Sud hospital.
Our file on the coronavirus
The main demands of the CGT Health go towards "more staff in a sustainable way", "no suspension of holidays in November and December" and "investment in the purchase of syringe pumps and other heavily used equipment".
According to Benjamin Berthet, “the caregivers are at their end” in the second French university hospital: “We refuse to relive the tinkering of the first wave of Covid-19.
The likelihood of a second wave should have been anticipated, instead of which 35 new graduates are currently being trained on the fly to be recruited as nurses and nursing assistants in order to strengthen Lyon Sud for a few months.
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"No, Mr Macron, it is not a question of organization but of means"
In this hospital located in Pierre-Bénite (Rhône), a second intensive care unit (out of three in total) dedicated to patients affected by the coronavirus has just been opened and the nine new beds have been filled in one week.
In this zone on “maximum alert”, the HCLs are currently considering the opening of a fourth resuscitation room in the premises of Lyon Sud.
“Management knows that it has every interest in listening to us because the situation is so tense,” says Benjamin Berthet.
But you always have to go begging to get material.
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This strike is above all "symbolic", since the many caregivers taking part simply wear an armband and did not leave their post on Monday, in view of the emergency situation.
“We are on our knees even before starting this second wave, warns the nurse in intensive care at Lyon Sud.
Strikes are breaking out all over the place.
We love our job but I'm really afraid for the future.
Because no, Mr. Macron, it is not a question of organization but of means.
"
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