Brigitte Bourguignon, François Braun, Aurélien Rousseau, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo and, since the last reshuffle on January 11, Catherine Vautrin… One health minister chases the other, in a position that has rarely seemed as unstable as under this second five-year term of Emmanuel Macron. And the health system is falling into crisis. In any case, this is the feeling of a large part of the nursing staff: the hospital services are at capacity, the private doctors’ practices are always full. “The system is collapsing”, we repeat on the ground. But with the feeling of no longer being heard.

The health crisis marked a turning point and drew attention to the situation of hospitals and nursing staff. This was the case a year ago when the increase of “Triple epidemic” Mixture of flu, Covid-19 and bronchiolitis in hospital services, shortages of medicines observed almost everywhere, a strike movement by private doctors…

And then ? “Nothing changes, but no one dares to say anything anymore, says Marc Noizet, president of the SAMU-Urgences de France union. We slowly reach complete resignation. It is terribly dangerous for both caregivers and patients. » “We are in a constant race to stay afloatsays Luc Duquesnel, head of general practitioners at the Confederation of French Doctors’ Unions. For many colleagues, the question is no longer when things will get better, but rather how long they can keep it up…”

“Load shedding” in the maternity ward in Lille

From Lille to Strasbourg, from Créteil to Mayenne, the symptoms of a “disease” that is undermining the health system continue to appear, always the same – a lack of workers, services that close or function poorly, growing medical deserts, patients who… I can’t have one Find a date… Without the political reaction being able to reverse the trend.

In the Jeanne-de-Flandre maternity hospital at the Lille University Hospital – one of the largest in France – the decision caused a huge uproar: given the shortage of pediatric neonatologists, patient transfers have been organized since December 2023, to other hospitals in the region and as far away as Belgium. “ Motherhood continues to function normally, only certain treatments related to neonatal resuscitation are referred to other partner facilities.”we inform the management of the CHU, At the same time, it is emphasized that transfers of this kind are not unprecedented. The fact is that this organized “load shedding” should last until May, time to replenish the medical staff.

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