Posted Sep 15, 2022, 6:59 PMUpdated on Sep 16, 2022 at 8:30 am
The Hospitals of Paris want to win back the hearts of their caregivers. On Wednesday, the boss of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) presented internally “courses of action” to try to revive the hospital group forced to idle for lack of nurses and other health professionals. .
The AP-HP faces “unprecedented tension in terms of human resources […] but also to a feeling of loss of meaning and overall deterioration of working conditions”, notes in a working document Nicolas Revel, who arrived at the general management of the AP-HP this summer to replace Martin Hirsch.
The group of 38 hospitals, which employs nearly 100,000 people, is today in “crisis” and has had to resign itself to a “significant reduction” in its “healthcare offer”, notes its new boss. At the end of September, nearly 18% of beds (in medicine, surgery, obstetrics) are closed against some 8% in 2019, we told AP-HP.
Nurses hemorrhage
The group lost nearly 1,000 nurses between June 2021 and 2022 (excluding reinforcements linked to Covid) and the workforce is at its lowest in five years. Despite efforts to recruit, shortages persist.
In an attempt to plug the gaps and get the liner moving again, the management is opening a month-long consultation on work options before presenting a more detailed roadmap for the next twelve months. Its first objective is to “rapidly improve” the daily lives of caregivers who complain – among other things – of being taken up with administrative tasks and having schedules that change all the time.
To “retain” those who remain and attract new professionals, the management of the AP-HP wants to put the question of the organization of work on the table. AP-HP nurses generally work in cycles of 7.5 hours, but young professionals “wish to concentrate their working days and mainly want 12-hour diagrams”, notes the working document transmitted internally.
Sensitive subject
The subject is sensitive and the AP-HP is familiar with social conflicts. The management is therefore moving forward cautiously, multiplying the questions and refraining from providing definitive answers. “Faced with the diversity of aspirations, including sometimes within the same service, it must be possible to introduce more flexibility into the organizations”, she slips however.
Another important subject on the table: real estate. The idea, which is not new, is to help health professionals find affordable accommodation near their place of work, while property prices have been soaring in the Paris region in recent years.
The AP-HP already offers aid schemes and promises to “significantly increase” its housing supply. However, the management wishes to open the debate on the question of means and other delicate subjects. “Shouldn’t we more clearly match access to housing financed directly by the AP-HP with a function clause which calls into question the occupation of housing in the event of departure? “, she asks.
The AP-HP suggests activating other “levers” to improve its “attractiveness”: by offering interesting career paths to nurses, by looking into collective incentive schemes or even by redeploying teams to relieve medical and paramedical teams, keen to focus on care. In any case, the room for maneuver is reduced. The group was in deficit in July and inflation promises to further complicate its budget equation in the coming months.