The Pediatrics collective denounced in an open letter to the Head of State dated October 22 and signed by 7,000 caregivers “an irresponsible political inaction”. Five of its members were received by Emmanuel Macron.
Representatives of the Paediatrics Collective went to the Elysee Palace on Wednesday morning November 2 to denounce the crisis that hospital pediatric services have been going through for a few weeks, noted an AFP journalist, and five of them were received by his cabinet, they said.
“We feel like we’ve been listened to“, told AFP Dr. Mélodie Aubart neuropediatrician at the Necker-Enfants Malades hospital, in Paris, member of this delegation, after this meeting with an adviser to the President of the Republic. “Today, dozens of children are hospitalized in emergency boxes, are transferred several hundred kilometers from home, caregivers come home every day feeling like they have done their job badly.“, she explained to AFP before this interview.
“Irresponsible political inaction”
Since the beginning of October, the emergency and pediatric intensive care units of hospitals across the country have been saturated, in particular due to an epidemic of early bronchiolitis. But she “is just the tip of the iceberg“, according to Dr. Aubart.
Read alsoSaturated pediatric emergencies: 4,000 caregivers summon Macron to act, against the backdrop of an epidemic of bronchiolitis
The collective denounced in an open letter to the Head of State dated October 22 and signed by 7,000 pediatric caregivers “irresponsible political inaction“. “The public authorities must understand that today, in France, children are poorly cared for, for lack of means, lack of caregivers and lack of a health policy worthy of the name.“, explains Isabelle Desguerre, head of the pediatric service at the Necker hospital.
The structural degradation of resources allocated to pediatric services leads to “a real flight of caregivers“, according to Mélodie Aubart. Like Dr. Hiba Trraf, who has just resigned from her post as head of the pediatric department at Montluçon hospital and who found herself the only doctor in the department after the departure of her six colleagues. “Morally and psychologically exhausted“, she refuses to continue”endanger children“.
Release of 150 million euros
The Minister of Health, François Braun, announced the establishment of a “immediate action plan» and the release of 150 million euros for «the services in tension of the hospital», and promised the organization in the spring of «foundations of pediatrics“. “A jokefor Professor Desguerre.
François Braun is due to receive this Wednesday afternoon representatives of the pediatrics sector. The collective denounces the fact thatthe same sequence was already conducted by the minister 15 days ago» and did «resulted in no decision or communication“.
SEE ALSO – Crisis in pediatrics: caregivers walk to the Elysee Palace to alert the Head of State