The director of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) announced his departure this morning during a meeting of the management board and in a letter addressed to the staff: he will leave his post at the end of the month, at the resulting from a mandate studded with controversy and while hospitals are more than ever in crisis.
Martin Hirsch, 58, was appointed to this position in 2013, having notably been High Commissioner for Active Solidarity against Poverty and Youth between 2007 and 2010, as part of “opening” claimed by Nicolas Sarkozy: a title which marked a form of independence for this man classified on the left, former president of Emmaüs (2002-2007).
Out of crisis
Despite the “Ségur” of Health, the Parisian institution he is about to leave is going through a deep crisis. Like the rest of the public hospital, the AP-HP suffers in particular from the shortage of caregivers, which worsened with the covid and the suspension of those who refused the “vaccination” obligation.
Despite the significant efforts of the management of the AP-HP, recruitment difficulties are particularly significant in the Paris region, due in particular to the cost of housing: caregivers who are forced to live far from their place of work add to a pace of work requiring travel times that are difficult to reconcile with a balanced life. The president of the AP-HP has failed to stem the vicious circle “fewer staff – fewer beds”, and Parisian public hospitals remain under high tension. Torn between a shortage of caregivers, the exhaustion of those who remain, and the misdeeds of bureaucratic management, they are vulnerable to the slightest increase in attendance, even chronically overwhelmed.
See also: Bernard Kron: the sick health system of his administration
A different hospital model?
Martin Hirsch salutes the courage and selflessness of the caregivers in his letter, and shows his regrets for not having been able to implement “a hospital model different from what it was before, closer to our expectations and our ambitions to all”. “It is because I thought I could not meet all the conditions for this commitment to be respected that I decided, a month ago, to hand over my position as Director General of the AP-HP to the provision of the government”he writes before calling for a profound reform: “I am convinced that many of the ills from which we suffer call for changes of the same magnitude as those which were made in 1958, when the university hospital was redesigned to restore its strength, nobility and attractiveness”.
Controversies
A fervent defender of health doxa, particularly when managing covid, the boss of the AP-HP had drawn the wrath of Professor Raoult, who in 2020 had taken him to court: Martin Hirsch had accused the director of the IHU of “false testimony” during his hearing by a parliamentary commission of inquiry, about the compared resuscitation figures for Paris and Marseille. Didier Raoult had announced to file a complaint for “slanderous denunciation”.
Martin Hirsch had also created controversy last January by questioning France 5 on the legitimacy of “unvaccinated” to continue to benefit from free healthcare. His remarks sparked an outcry and prompted numerous calls for his resignation.
Succession sensible
The name of his successor is not yet known: a political profile like Martin Hirsch, enarque who made a career in the wake of Bernard Kouchner? Or rather from the hospital technostructure? Or a doctor? Aurélien Rousseau, former director of the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency and now director of the cabinet of Emmanuelle Borne, will undoubtedly have the ear of the Prime Minister for this appointment to this prestigious and difficult post. For the future management of the AP-HP, at the head of 100,000 people and 38 hospitals, the files promise to be hot and the task difficult, for a hospital more than ever in a state of emergency.
See also: “La fracture”, angry and tender portrait of a state of… social emergency, by Catherine Corsini