By Loraine Dion
Published on
updated on 30 Jul 21 at 9:59
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#Record beaten, #GuinessWordRecord are ironic firefighters under the Facebook post of the CFDT section SDIS from Gironde (Departmental Intervention and Rescue Service).
Dated July 22, 2021, the post in question alerts on the situation of a patient… who deserves his name. He waited 6:05, at the back of a ambulance, in front, there clinic of the 4 pavilions To Lormont (Gironde), before being admitted. “An absolute record”, deplores Jonathan Mansot, firefighter since 2007 and departmental secretary of the CFDT SDIS 33.
Far from being isolated, this situation is, according to him, directly attributable to the caregiver shortages that health establishments in the Bordeaux metropolitan area are currently experiencing. Problem ? In addition to endangering the lives of patients, these extended waiting times mobilize emergency vehicles and firefighters. “While waiting for a bed to become available for their patient, they cannot help someone who needs it,” says the CFDT representative.
“Should it affect a child or an elected official?” “
The alarm bells were sounded several years ago by “exhausted” firefighters. Long before the health crisis linked to Covid-19, they alerted, alongside caregivers, to the mistreatment of which users were victims.
“We reach here what we have feared for a long time! A person who must be hospitalized by order of the doctor of the Samu and who waits 6 hours in a cell! 6 hours, during the day, in a car, in the middle of summer. whether it affects a child or a chosen one, or worse, someone dies so that we are heard? ”
He believes that in Bordeaux, firefighters are no longer able to properly perform the tasks incumbent on them. In question, the multiplication of what they call in their jargon “deficiencies”: patient transport missions, normally provided by private ambulances, and entrusted to firefighters for lack of medical vehicles in sufficient number. They have multiplied in recent years, reaching up to 30% of SDIS 33 interventions today.
“We are called to make up for the lack of ambulances in the metropolis, but that is not our role! We are there to help people on public roads, to take charge of vital emergencies or to intervene in fires and fires. And that, nobody can do it for us! “, Insists Jonathan Mansot.
In degraded mode
An overload of work all the more problematic as the Bordeaux firefighters have suffered, for the past ten years, from a chronic understaffing. “We had already demonstrated in 2019. We then went on strike for this reason. The president agreed to recruit a hundred firefighters, ”he says.
The promises had been kept. The arrival of contract workers then made it possible to irrigate the services of the Bordeaux SDIS… for a while, at least. The staff have since been redeployed to barracks in tension in the rest of the department. Arbitrations which were “made to the detriment of the city center”, according to the union representative. “We tinker! today, we undress Paul to dress Pierre. In Bordeaux we have barracks where more than 15% of the agents have taken sick leave. They are exhausted, the situation is not sustainable! “
In his barracks in Ornano, for example, since 2007, the numbers have melted like snow in the sun, from 44 men per day to 24 this year. At the same time, the volume of interventions has soared in the Gironde prefecture. From 80,000 10 years ago, they now approach 120,000 annual operations.
“This summer we meet at 16 men at night. We can say that we are operating in degraded mode. Hopefully there is no forest fire, I don’t think we would be able to intervene ”.
The water drop
In view of the situation “under tension”, the intersyndicale – UNSA, CFDT, FO and SUD – met this Thursday, July 29 in the morning.
Together, they wish to “strike hard” this summer to challenge the president of the department, Jean-Luc Gleyze, the Prefecture, and the Regional Health Agency, on “a real risk that we are running not only to Bordelais, but also to agents ”, affirms the representative of the CFDT which evokes an“ explosive situation ”.
“In the past, for personal assistance, we intervened in 3 minutes. Today, the delay is 15 to 20 minutes”
They are calling for better management of deficiencies, a refocusing of their missions and more staff. “With the Covid, this summer, Bordeaux is full. We are facing a number of appeals rarely equaled for a month of July. There will be a tragedy, and we cannot be blamed for not having warned, ”concludes Jonathan Mansot.
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