The new Minister of Health therefore took office on Monday. François Braun replaces Brigitte Bourguignon, beaten in the legislative elections. This emergency doctor from Metz is the author of a report which contains 41 recommendations to improve emergencies. In Toulouse, where CHU emergency staff were on strike on Monday, the news of this appointment divides.
“We cannot be offended by a situation that we ourselves have created”
This is the fifth Monday in a row that they are on strike to demand more staff. For Matthieu, who is a radio manipulator in the emergency room and CGT delegate, the appointment of François Braun will not change much. “We cannot be offended today by the situation when we have created it ourselves”, he is indignant on Europe 1. “I imagine that François Braun, who is head of service, validated the bed closures and the post closures. He certainly validated those austerity policies in the hospitals that led to the situation we have today.”
But for Gilles, who is an emergency nurse at Purpan University Hospital, the fact that the minister is an emergency physician can allow him to be more efficient. For him, who is on strike for the first time in eight years, we must respond very quickly to the discomfort of caregivers.
“We ask for more human needs”
“On paper, I think it’s very good,” he says. “Now, Olivier Véran was a neurologist. It didn’t solve all the neurology problems, but let’s wait and see. We are not asking for salary increases, we are asking for additional human needs. And that, we have to answer now. The exercise of our profession becomes dangerous. Me, when I take care of 25 patients, I am unable to say the name of the people and even less the pathologies for which they are in the emergency room or what care I owe them TO DO”.
And all are aware that it will still take time, especially to empower the population, while nearly 40% of patients who present themselves do not come from emergencies and could be taken care of by a city doctor.