Dwhere does Mr. Véran speak when he affirms, on May 12 on BFM-TV, that the problems of the lack of caregivers, leading to the closure of beds and hospital services, do not result only from a problem of wages, but from organization ?
He is right to say that there is a real organizational problem at the public hospital, when the closure of beds and services causes chaos within the hospital, forcing caregivers to change schedules, to return to their holidays, to take care of patients whose pathology they do not always know very well. He is right to say that this organizational problem risks leading to a form of mistreatment for the surviving professionals and for the patients waiting for a bed to be treated properly.
But does he not confuse the effect and the cause? Isn’t the “organized” disorganization the result of health policies undertaken for several decades, centered solely on the financial profitability of public hospitals? Didn’t the disorganization – the cause of everything – result from the lack of means that the Covid-19 crisis had partly obscured? It was believed that this health crisis would lead to a questioning of neoliberal public health policies, but it turns out that in 2022 nothing has been done, contrary to what the government claims by repeating that billions were allocated to the public hospital. In many establishments, millions are missing to “complete” the Ségur – this mantra repeated by the minister –, postponing the requests for reinforcements necessary to remedy the lack of personnel. Hospitals would not be able to organize the shortage? Wouldn’t they be able to attract caregivers – so highly paid now?
An overwhelming bureaucracy
Another name for disorganization is bureaucracy. Mr. Véran is indeed right when he points out that the administrative burdens that weigh on caregivers prevent them from holding that hand, from reassuring that patient, when it is necessary to trace, note, enter abstract data on the computers of the service, and then process them for counting. Mr. Véran is a thousand times right to point out that this insane heaviness can only harm the quality of the work. But isn’t this administrative heaviness the consequence of a form of privatization of the hospital whose only categorical imperative would be the balance of expenditure?
Fortunately, as Mr. Véran asserts, “the quality and safety of care are at the rendezvous” ! Patients lying on their stretchers for hours in the emergency room could attest to this. Without forgetting, alas, the bereaved families after one of their own died in these corridors where the caregivers, heroes in spite of themselves, worry about not finding a bed for this patient. Fortunately, as the minister again asserts, “all French people who need access to emergency care have access to it”. The inhabitants of Senlis (Oise), Redon (Ille-et-Vilaine), Bailleul (Nord) and many other small towns, forced to travel several tens of kilometers to find an open emergency service, will be able to appreciate the minister’s remarks. Blame it no doubt on the lack of liberal practitioners, detached from the guards, refusing new patients because they are overwhelmed, pushing them to the emergency room of the nearest hospital. Mr. Véran, once again, is right, recognizing the unequal access to care in these deserts where all public services are lacking.
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