Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (C) and the new Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, Catherine Vautrin in front of the Dijon university hospital center, January 13, 2024 (AFP/Bertrand GUAY)
The public hospital, elevated to the rank of “national treasure” by the Prime Minister, will benefit from a “massive investment” in the years to come, Gabriel Attal praised on Saturday, without being very precise on the new means which could be released .
“I say it, our hospital and our caregivers are a national treasure,” said the Prime Minister after visiting the Dijon University Hospital, accompanied by the new Minister in charge of Health, Catherine Vautrin.
Assuring that he placed the subject at the “top of the pile”, Gabriel Attal estimated to the press at “32 billion additional euros” over the “five years to come” the planned investment in the healthcare system.
An amount a priori not new; it corresponds to the “increase in the budget of the health branch which was adopted in the last social security financing law”, concerning the hospital and community medicine, specifies Matignon.
“Specifically for hospitals, the increase in resources will be +3 billion in 2024 compared to 2023,” according to the same source.
“Unless the government indicates that these are new resources, this is what is planned overall,” confirmed on X Arnaud Robinet, president of the French Hospital Federation (FHF) and Mayor Horizons of Reims.
“For the hospital, the challenge is to finance investment, salary increases and inflation at the right level. However, we are awaiting major decisions, without which the 2024 budget is already and already insufficient,” he added.
“The next budget that my government will have to present will be a historic budget for the public hospital”, continued Gabriel Attal, promising the “continuation of a massive investment for the hospital”.
– “Dying” –
“We are making up for decades of underinvestment and obviously it takes several years for this to be felt by the caregiver, the doctor who is here, in the hospital,” he admitted.
Until the European elections, on June 9, the Prime Minister “will act as if he had just arrived the day after an alternation and will promise billions within unclear deadlines”, denounced the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure.
“The reality is 600 million less in the 2024 budget,” he wrote on the social network X.
The choice of emergencies at the Dijon University Hospital for a first field trip by the new Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity responds to a desire to pay “tribute to those who are mobilized to ensure this reception of emergencies at all ages of life”, explained Catherine Vautrin.
“What is interesting is a multi-departmental and multi-regional welcome. It is important to highlight these elements of complementarity between urbanity and rurality,” she added.
The visit to the François Mitterrand University Hospital lasted fifty minutes. Both visited the pediatric emergency room first, then the adult emergency room.
The Prime Minister was questioned by staff members. A caregiver notably alerted him to the fact that “the hospital (was) dying” and that she was not sure if he “realized” it.
“The challenge is to train more doctors. It takes time,” he replied. “Means have been released. Now what is needed is for this to translate very concretely for you,” he added.
Gabriel Attal then visited the Samu regulation center. In particular, he witnessed the telephone support of a person warning of the suicidal tendencies of a loved one.
© 2024 AFP
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