IRène Frachon allowed the conviction of the Servier laboratory on appeal December 20, 2023. It is the victory of “Girl from Brest” – and that of thousands of victims – who was able to prove that she was right to attack the powerful pharmaceutical lobby. She will remain a role model for these often anonymous women and men and will bear witness to the catastrophic situation in the public hospital.

These whistleblowers, who interacted with patients on a daily basis and wanted nothing more than to be heard, were nevertheless punished for their goodwill. Sébastien Harscoat in Strasbourg or Caroline Brémaud in Laval know it: raising the alarm for the good of the community is dangerous. Whistleblower, for the sociologist Francis Chateauraynaud, author of Alerts and whistleblowers (“What do I know?”, PUF, 2020) are not the accusers of mistakes, fraud or mistreatment, but rather people or groups who break the silence and signal the impending or simple possibility of a catastrophic situation.

This is exactly what happens in public hospitals. For several years, caregivers, nurses, physician assistants, psychologists, social workers, health managers, patients, doctors, department heads, etc. have witnessed the deterioration in access to health care and public hospitals. They alert public authorities, elected officials and current or future patients to the situation in our healthcare system through the press and social networks in the hope of stopping the hellish spiral. Shortage of staff, inadequate patient intake, loss of opportunities, etc unexpected or avoidable deathsare now published.

In 2022, the INSEE found an excess mortality of 50,000 deaths. Today no one, not even the government, denies the decline of public hospitals and access to health care for all. Brigitte Bourguignon, short-lived health minister, described the collectives of hospital workers and users as “Bad Omen Birds”But the public hospital defense collectives are not prophets of doom: they are optimists who want to save our public system.

In 2022, 7,000 beds were closed

They denounce the miscommunication about the billions provided by Providence, which are just the addition of private and public resources for the next decade, and remind us of the facts: we no longer count the number of emergency services “regulated” not to say closed (163 of 389 in summer 2023), the queues for stretchers in hospital car parks – in Strasbourg a tent was set up in the car park at Christmas to accommodate patients – and the long waits for the oldest patients that led to this an excess mortality of 4%.

You still have 55% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.