Emergencies: Half of Parisian services are "out of the strike" says AP-HP

Paris (AFP)

Twelve of the 25 emergency services in the capital are "officially out of the strike," said Wednesday the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP), while the movement continues to expand at the national level according to its organizers.

Epicenter of the crisis that shakes French emergencies for 7 months, Paris hospitals are progressively disengaging: "protocols of agreement of end of strike were signed" in half of the structures of general reception or pediatric, according to the Minutes of the AP-HP Supervisory Board held last week.

"These agreements disclose the commitments made (...) to address the difficulties encountered by the services", including the creation of "230 full-time equivalents for nurses and care-givers," says the institution.

Contacted by AFP, the AP-HP states that "a hundred recruitments have already been made" and that other "job descriptions (have been published or are being finalized").

The signatories also benefit from a "compensation for hazardous work, the amount has been adjusted to 56 euros net for 20 days worked".

This sum is added to the monthly net risk premium of 100 euros paid since July to public emergency staff, Agnès Buzyn's main concession to the strikers so far.

In addition, a first "zero stretcher" contract will be signed "within a few weeks" between the regional health agency (ARS) of Ile-de-France and the Bicêtre hospital (Val-de-Marne), which will open for the occasion "an acute geriatric unit of 22 beds".

Evidence that "if openings of beds are relevant to streamline the downstream of emergencies, they may be considered," according to the Director of the ARS Ile-de-France, Aurélien Rousseau, cited in the minutes of the AP-HP.

This local defusing does not prevent the conflict from reaching a new level, with 269 services on strike Wednesday according to the collective Inter-Emergency, which is at the origin.

This association, as well as the hospital unions and another "collective inter-hospital" created by doctors heads of service, called for a "big demonstration" in Paris on November 14 "to obtain an emergency plan for the hospital public".

© 2019 AFP