"Today, 300 nursing health centers are threatened with closure if they do not receive an annual amount of 11 million euros" to compensate for the funds advanced for the revaluation of nurses' salaries, estimated on Wednesday in a joint press release. four federations that represent them (Adedom, ADMR, UNA and C3SI).

Nursing health centers are small associative structures, very present in particular in rural areas, but also in certain disadvantaged neighborhoods.

They are the heirs of dispensaries of the past, often run by nuns.

Their nurses are employees.

The fees corresponding to their acts are paid directly to their employer by Social Security and mutual insurance companies.

In October 2021, the social partners agreed on a significant increase in their salary, as part of the revision of a collective agreement for the branch of assistance, support, care and services to residence.

But the financing of this significant increase - the index point increased by 15% - was not planned.

The centers have paid by drawing on their reserves, but these are running out.

The gazes of the nursing care centers are turned towards the State and the National Health Insurance Fund, so that the latter agrees to increase their funding.

"A mission of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs has been set up to assess the funding" of these centers, said the office of Minister of Health François Braun, interviewed by AFP.

“Based on this work, the government is currently working on changes to the methods of financing these centers,” added the same source.

According to the centers, there is an emergency.

"In 2023, we will still be able to ensure, but in 2024, the question of the sustainability of the activities of the center will arise", explained to AFP Christian Debout, the president of the nursing care center of Comines, in the North. .

- "Hold on for a few more months" -

His center, which employs eight nurses providing care as well as a nurse coordinator, had a deficit of 22,000 euros over the first 10 months of 2023, he explained.

In Cherbourg (Manche), the Association Soins-Santé nursing center and its 11 nurses forecast a deficit of 70,000 euros for the year 2022.

“We can last a few more months”, but no more, indicated its director Corinne Mataguez.

The end of the nursing care center would have consequences for all the other structures with which it collaborates daily, such as the home care service (SSIAD, nursing assistants) and a team specializing in Alzheimer's disease located in the same premises. , or even the Cherbourg hospital, she warns.

The issue of financing nursing care centers comes up regularly.

In 2013, a report by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs already noted that nursing care centers were "fragile structures that should be consolidated by renovating their economic model".

The increase in the salary of nurses in care centers, considered completely legitimate by the centers themselves, followed the increase in the remuneration of nurses decided by the Ségur de la Santé, in 2020.

It places the net monthly salary of nurses in care centers at around 1,950 euros at the start of their career, up to 2,580 euros at the end of their career.

© 2023 AFP