The caregivers, the hospital, the medical deserts… Health has been included in the programs of this presidential election. On paper, at least. After two years of health crisis, which put an already fragile system to the test, it was difficult to ignore this theme rooted in the main subjects of concern to the French. “This is the first time that we have talked so much about health, all the candidates have at least made a speech, a trip on the subject, which was far from the case in previous elections”, Judge Frédéric Valletoux, head of the French Hospital Federation. But, at the same time, the manager admits: “It is still certain that, in the end, as for all the subjects during this campaign, we did not hear much. »
Beyond the low place of health in the debates of this strange campaign, the substance of the proposals perhaps raises even more questions in the medical community, still largely under the fire of difficulties, despite the decline of the last wave of Covid. -19. Shortage of nurses, bed closures, saturated emergency services forced to close at night for lack of sufficient personnel… the ills of the hospital are far from having been overcome, despite the Ségur de la santé – a plan initiated by the government in the summer of 2020 – and its significant salary increases.
“Beside the Plate”
Hire more, train more, raise salaries, open beds… from right to left, we compete with proposals to come to the bedside of the hospital. However, the main stakeholders remain skeptical. “Everyone claims to support caregivers and the hospital, but there are no real solutions, it remains beside the plate, estimates Olivier Milleron, cardiologist at the Bichat hospital, in Paris, and member of the Inter-hospital Collective. There was no real debate on these questions: what should be the place of the public hospital in society? What role for the public and for the private? How do we restore attractiveness for care professions? »
For the doctor, we are still in a “accounting view” of the hospital. “This is what scares away the caregivers, who continue to leave him in large numbers, since they have no prospect of improvement, it is very worrying, he continues. Do we finance according to needs, or according to activity, as today, with the idea of regulating the budget? We haven’t heard of any key measures that would change things. » In particular, he recommends the establishment of a mandatory “ratio” in hospitals, i.e. a minimum number of caregivers for a given number of patients.
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