The presidential debate on Wednesday April 20 between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron was full of subjects: purchasing power, international, ecology, pensions… But after the global pandemic, what about hospitals and health, major burn victims of the past two years?
April 11, 2022. The journalist Anne Jouan publishes in Paris Match an edifying, revolting investigation which traces the cry of alarm of the nursing staff of the public hospital. If the article counts on the closure of the immunopathology service of Saint-Louis (Paris) for lack of arms, it also deals with other major problems, in other cities. Conclusion: the public hospital is suffering everywhere in France, in the four corners of France.
Read also: Hospital: the Saint-Louis Manifesto
Anne Jouan speaks of the University Hospital of Orléans where “more than 90% of paramedics are on sick leave”, of Grenoble where “emergencies close intermittently”, Marseille, which “is desperately looking for nurses, childcare workers for radio manipulation” or even Bichat where the “Reference service specializing in stroke is 80% closed”. Not to mention the temporary contracts, carers over 70, paid a pittance – and that’s an understatement. According to the general director of opinion of Ifop Frédéric Dabi, health is the most important subject for the French and has been since September 2019. However, it will only have been partially addressed during the presidential debate last Wednesday, April 20.
An exchange… of five minutes
And for good reason, it took ten minutes for the subject to be put on the table; it will finally last… five minutes! Emmanuel Macron was the first to speak and defend his record: “In 2018, I ended the reduction in hospital prices, the numerus clausus, then we experienced the crisis. ” He added, after paying tribute to the caregivers (the same ones he dismissed and repressed in the streets): “We have invested more than nineteen billion euros in our hospitals and investment in salaries with a revaluation of at least 183 euros per month and up to more than 400 euros at the end of the career. The president-candidate then concluded: “I know that it is the working conditions that are hard and that we must continue to invest in order to rehire. A series of measures to end medical deserts with paramedics, nurses […] to have health referents. »
Marine Le Pen, who was waiting for him at the turn, replied: “During your five-year term, you will have waited for crises. We had to wait for the health crisis to realize that the nursing staff has been in incredible suffering for years. The boss of the RN also mentioned the dismissal of “15,000 caregivers, without pay, overnight because you refused to allow them to be tested before going to work because you wanted them to be vaccinated at all costs. Marking deep disagreements, she continued: “I will reinstate them and return the wages they were deprived of. Nurses are understaffed, medical deserts have been there for years. It is necessary to invest 20 billion over five years, that is to say ten billion on the revaluation of the personnel, which will be public money and ten billion on the investment for the equipment, which will be private funds. »
This stormy exchange, too quick and which did not provide any substantive answer either on the public hospital or for the caregivers is undoubtedly what was missing in this debate. Because after two years of “the most serious pandemic in a century” according to Macron, nothing has really been proposed.
If the two candidates have not been able to capitalize on their speaking time on this oh so important theme, their proposals can be consulted online, in their respective programs. Marine Le Pen wrote that she wanted, among other things, “at least 10,000 additional places [qui] will be opened in the Nursing Training Institutes (IFSI) and nursing assistant training centres”, “the salary of nurses [qui] will be increased by 10% to reach the European average” or the increase in the “number of homes and health centres. The RN candidate also said she wanted to set up a “specific allowance of €300 monthly [qui] will be created for anyone who chooses to live in the home of a dependent loved one or to welcome them into their home to devote themselves fully to their support. »
On the LREM side, a page with in particular “less administrative burdens for caregivers, more responsibilities for paramedics and a central place for doctors in governance”; a “relocated[ation] in France [de] the production of medicines”; ““Hospital outside the walls” to “relieve emergency room congestion through broader participation in guards, single number for a medical appointment within 48 hours if necessary. »
Find the report of Paris Match devoted to the Saint-Louis hospital in the number 3807.