• Almost all of the caregivers of the Lyon-Sud hospital maternity ward have been on indefinite strike since Monday.

  • In question, the decision of the management to cut 10 positions (out of 93) and 5 beds, due to the drop in births, in a set already understaffed.

  • Midwives denounce a workload which is getting worse and which risks in the long term endangering the health of patients.

Every midwife prefers the cry of a newborn to a cry of anger.

But at the Lyon-Sud hospital, it is a silence of protest that fills the walls of the maternity ward.

This Monday, 85 of its 93 caregivers went on indefinite strike, after the decision, taken on February 9 by the management of the hospital center to cut 10 positions and 5 beds, in a tense context.

A decision justified by a declining number of births: the maternity ward, which in 2015 aimed for a target of 2,500 births per year, pointed out that it recorded less than 2,000 per year.

Removing one job means making another one heavier

Delphine Large, midwife in Lyon-Sud, was surprised by the announcement: “Just with 2,000 births, we are already at just-in-time, in addition to the overactivity due to Covid-19.

“Especially since the management has asked its nursing staff to participate in its communication:” We did it… during our hours of rest!

“, she specifies.

“Thanks to our commitment, we have developed different forms of treatment, such as hypnosis, acupuncture… Passing diplomas which were not financed by management.

Caregivers, excluding doctors, also had to adapt so that the maternity ward could obtain the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative label.

However, by their complementary work, by their ethics and by the very nature of maternity, midwives, nursing auxiliaries and hospital service agents are often called upon to help each other.

The abolition of a single position therefore impacts them all: “We have agents and a night nurse whose positions will be eliminated and whose tasks, such as cleaning the delivery rooms, will be assigned to childcare auxiliaries ” , notes Delphine Large.

“These are therefore not part of the threatened positions, but they are strikers!

»

Projects continued somehow

When contacted, the HCLs responded with a press release that the objective of 2,500 births per year was indeed suspended, but that "the infrastructure necessary for 2,500 deliveries remains present, and the HCLs will adapt the means in operation to the needs of the population of the territory”.

Adding that “the maternity hospital's strategic project aimed at developing the physiological childbirth center and obtaining the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative label is continuing with the means adapted to these actions.

The neonatology sector, which has a vocation of regional reception, is strengthened.

»

Not enough to reassure the staff of Lyon-Sud, who protested this week on the forecourt of the hospital, communicated with executives, doctors and interns to invite them to review their organization, and launched an online petition.

“We cannot be asked to continue doing all this support work, just based on a number of births.

We are an emergency service, with a non-programmable activity, and the fewer of us there are, the more risks there are, ”recalls Delphine Large.

“We want to alert and warn future patients.

The HCL communicate on the quality of our work and on everything that we put in place, but we cannot keep that without negotiation with the management.

»

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  • Birth

  • Maternity

  • Strike

  • Lyons

  • Society

  • Hospital

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