Le Blanc (France) (AFP)

One year after the definitive closing of their maternity, the inhabitants of the White (Indre) did not take off and organized Thursday, day of national mobilization of the public hospital, a symbolic banquet "of the assassins of the public hospitals and the maternity".

Around a table set up in front of the hospital to "celebrate the destruction of the hospital" and "privatization of health" to the sound of a pipe, the guests hid behind masks bearing the effigy of Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn or the prefect.

On the menu, a "dish of destruction" as a main dish and desserts for "private hospitals and the privatization of health services" were served by an elected official.

"To heal, you just have to cross the street," said Bertrand Coly, a member of the maternity defense group, ironically, referring to a sentence sent in September 2018 by the head of state to a young man who was looking for job.

"Buzyn killed me", could be read on panels held around by a dozen protesters.

The maternity of the White where about 300 children were born each year, was closed in June 2018 by decision of the regional health agency (ARS) because of risks related to the low number of deliveries. This decision became final in October 2018. Since an audit was requested by the ARS on perinatality but its conclusions have not been communicated.

"We were sold a maternity without delivery but there was no local support measure," denounced Bertrand Coly.

Since the closure of the establishment, forty children in this small town of Berry are born, including six "on the side of the road or in emergencies," according to Bertrand Coly.

- "the state has no say" -

Coming to support, the mayor of this town of 7.000 inhabitants Jacqueline Gombert, said she was "scandalized" by the situation. Asked about a possible regrouping of the elected representatives of the cities affected by the closures of establishments, she evoked "such a Berezina that it is difficult to regroup".

"The state has no say (...) the logic that led to this closure is the same as the one that puts on strike hundreds of public hospitals: the reduction of the public means of health", said François Mignet, member of the collective "It's not tomorrow the day before".

"For the moment, they had the bowl" that there was no accident of birth, says Helen Yaouane-Lapalle, pediatrician who has exercised 34 years to the White and fears "a tragedy".

Proudly advancing her stroller in the middle of the participants, Christelle Guillebaud explains having given birth to a little Lily last Friday at the urgency of the Blanc Hospital.

"The midwife said: I'm keeping her," she says, saying that everything had accelerated in the morning, that the Samu had arrived after three quarters of an hour to take her to an hour of road. "They had chosen the CHU Poitiers but I did not feel it, it was good, it was a Friday and the midwife was there," she adds.

© 2019 AFP