The Ministry of Health announced Thursday, September 16, that midwives working at the hospital will receive from January a bonus of 100 euros net and a salary increase of about 100 euros gross per month. These revaluations, which will be included in the Social Security budget for 2022, were unveiled Thursday evening by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, during a meeting with the midwifery unions.
They will represent an additional expenditure of 40 million euros per year, said the minister’s office to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Three quarters of the 23,500 midwives will benefit from it, for a monthly gain equivalent to the increase of 183 euros net already granted to all hospital staff at the end of 2020 as part of the Ségur de la santé. The announcement serves as a partial catch-up for the profession, forgotten by the overhaul of salary scales negotiated for nurses and nursing aides, among others.
“Midwives may have felt left out”, recognizes the entourage of the minister. In fact, these caregivers have already taken to the streets five times since the start of the year, to demand recognition and staff. However, not all of their demands were met.
For the profession, the advertisements do not deal “in depth with the causes of the discomfort”
The request for a tailor-made status was thus rejected, Mr. Véran preferring “To consolidate their medical status within the hospital public service”, especially through this “Significant revaluation”. Their skills will nevertheless be extended to new areas, such as endometriosis, and the ministry intends to facilitate the creation of “Birth houses” managed by midwives.
Announcements received coldly by the National Council of the Order of Midwives, which believes in a press release that they do not respond “To the challenges of the profession”. “By not dealing in depth with the causes of midwifery discomfort, the attractiveness of the profession seems to be permanently compromised. By ignoring the growing problems of staffing in maternity hospitals, the essential question of the safety and quality of the care of patients and newborns remains unanswered ”, argues the instance.
The instance, “Who had already alerted the public authorities to the shortage of midwives and the exhaustion of these professionals, is alarmed by the consequences of these announcements on the future of maternity hospitals”.