The caregivers never give up. A few days before the closing of the Ségur de la santé, hospital staff demonstrated again Tuesday, June 30, to obtain more than the 6.3 billion euros already put on the table by the government.

After the success of their mobilization on June 16 (100,000 to 180,000 demonstrators according to sources), the unions and hospital collectives intended to maintain pressure on the executive, in the final stretch of Ségur de la santé, named after street where the ministry is located.

The tonnage was however clearly lower, with half the number of planned gatherings, a hundred throughout France according to the CGT, and a declining participation: several thousand demonstrators in Paris, at least 1,200 in Lyon according to the prefecture, between 1 600 and 3,000 in Nantes, 700 to 1,500 in Montpellier, 200 to 500 in Clermont-Ferrand, 500 in Grenoble, 200 in Strasbourg, a few hundred in Dijon.

France: - "White coats": caregivers back on the streets on Tuesday

Fewer, but no less determined, like Sandrine Coudriaud, an Alsatian nurse's aide, who came to demand "a fair wage for the warriors we are, sent to the front without protection" during the epidemic of Covid-19.

"We especially want the means to do our job well," insisted Mylène Rigaud, radio operator from Auvergne, who "does not want to have to choose between a patient who is dying in the corridor and one who is unattended in a box".

The Ségur de la santé, launched at the end of May to give effect to the "massive investment and upgrading plan" promised by Emmanuel Macron, was supposed to respond to these demands.

But the envelopes proposed by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran (300 million for hospital doctors, 6 billion for non-medical staff), are very far from the hopes raised by this vast consultation.

For Lyonnais Stéphane, caregiver in cancerology "six billion is not enough, when we see what they inject in aeronautics for example, when health is priceless".

In the same procession, Nadia, stretcher-bearer, affirms that "the plans for the public hospital, they are always promises, but if we are there today, it is that they were never kept, and the Ségur is one more smokehouse. "

France - "White coats": caregivers back on the street

All remember the previous announcements by the government, which did not stop a social movement that started in the spring of 2019.

"It's been over a year since the nursing staff manifested," recalled Philippe Martinez, present at the start of the Parisian demonstration.

The leader of the CGT wished "acts worthy of thanks" during the health crisis, first of all "money for the nursing staff, much more than what was announced".

"The account is not there," confirmed his counterpart of Force Ouvrière, Yves Veyrier, who considers that "we are on a starting point, the negotiations have started".

But time is running out because the Ségur de la santé must end on Friday with a final meeting under the aegis of the former CFDT director, Nicole Notat. The head of state could then announce his arbitrations himself next week.

Asked about a possible budget extension, the Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire assured Tuesday that "the government" would be "there", without however advancing a figure. "We will do what it takes for the caregivers," he said.

Expectations are however very high: just for the general increase of 300 euros net per month claimed by all unions, it would cost almost 7 billion, according to the secretary general of FO-Health, Didier Birig.

Without taking into account the situation of "interns and young doctors who are remunerated in an indecent manner, nor the differential between the salaries of the public and the private one", underlines the Inter-Hospital Collective.

The CGT regrets for its part that "the question of recruiting staff" is "not addressed" in the context of "Ségur".

The government has however pledged to release resources for investment, in addition to the already scheduled recovery of a third of hospital debt by the Safely. It remains to know the amount of this budget envelope.

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