REPORTAGE
233 emergency services are on strike in France. The number has doubled since this summer. And in the face of bursting services, caregivers want more value and above all more resources. The movement has taken an unprecedented scale and now concerns almost half of public emergencies in France. Europe 1 went to emergency services at Bicêtre Hospital.
"This work is nonsense"
Anne-Claire has been a nurse for 8 years and today she says she no longer recognizes her profession: "It's a job that is above all human, we have to accompany someone in difficulty, in pain, and here we are obliged to to do everything very quickly, without this accompaniment, this work is nonsense. " With tears in her eyes, she continues: "I feel guilty because I have a 105-year-old patient who stays on a stretcher for three days, I feel bad."
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In this hospital, waiting time can go up to 8 hours. The strikers have set up a grievance book at the entrance of the service in which we find complaints but also encouragement. Many patients, like Momo, support the movement: "I think that their professional conscience does not allow them to leave people sick and to say 'I am on strike I am not caring for you'."
"We have become robots"
Three months this service is on strike and three months as the service is reduced to a minimum. In the evening, only eight nurses are available for sometimes 200 patients. So for this caregiver, the pace is frantic: "We have become robots, when a patient calls, we do not have the time and we keep saying 'we're coming'. the time for the patient. "
In this service, many are demoralized and departures are numerous: 7 nurses and 12 caregivers plan to leave the emergency before the end of the year.