"Thank you and well done". It was with these words that Emmanuel Macron concluded his speech to the armies at the Hôtel de Brienne on July 13. The French President addressed his thanks to the military medical personnel. On July 14, on the occasion of the national holiday, the tribute is paid to all those engaged in the fight against the Covid-19, military and civil. But will this be enough to calm the anger of hospital professionals who already fear a second wave of Covid-19 and deplores a lack of resources?
"We appreciate the thanks, but we hope that the actions will follow," reacts to France 24 Thomas Laurent, a nurse at the Édouard Herriot hospital in Lyon and a member of the Inter Urgences collective. "The only downside is that the president is talking about this crisis as if it were over, which is not the case."
Caregivers will therefore be in the streets, in Paris and Lyon, this Tuesday, July 14. A demonstration of hospital staff is planned between République and Bastille in the middle of the day at the call of six organizations, including the CGT and Sud. During the military parade, a banner flew over the Place de la Concorde, announcing the color: one could read on the one hand "the economy costs us our lives" and on the other "behind the tributes, Macron suffocates the hospital".
# 14July
On the Champs Elysées barricaded and forbidden to the public, during the Marseillaise, balloons and a banner flew from a building. "The economy costs us our lives" and "behind the Macron tributes asphyxiates the hospital". #Macron #soignants #JiletsJaunes pic.twitter.com/aA6UUxcgb9
The "Ségur de la Santé" not enough
An agreement on the "Ségur de la Santé" was however signed on July 13, providing for an envelope of 7.5 billion for paramedical personnel (nurses, nursing assistants) and other non-medical personnel (technical, administrative agents, etc.). This sum will be used mainly to finance a so-called "base" salary increase of 183 euros net monthly for all hospital and public nursing staff, but also new increases for overtime and night work.
"But these wage increases do not correspond to our demands," continues Thomas Laurent, who believes that the 7.5 billion euros will not be enough. "The health budget in France represents more than 200 billion so it's a few percent more. And we are very numerous, so that is not enough for us to go back up in the average wages of rich countries".
In addition, caregivers remain worried about a second wave. "We know that we held the shock, because the whole country stopped working, which is unlikely to happen in the second wave. And we are afraid of not succeeding in functioning as well ", adds this nurse. "We have been fighting for the public hospital for over a year. It took a pandemic to establish a power relationship with the authorities. We would like to avoid having to use a second wave to continue improving the public hospital ".
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