From psychiatric bed closures are announced at Niort hospital because of a lack of staff. “Recruitments were planned and in the end they were not made. We had withdrawals for personal reasons so that put us in difficulty”, explains Bruno Faulconnier, director of the Niort hospital who specifies “We cannot ask professionals to be called back on their holidays, their weekends. It is not tenable”.
We cannot ask professionals to be called back on their holidays, their weekends. It is not tenable
Bed gel, “Maximum 30”, indicates Bruno Faulconnier out of 130 in total. A solution “temporary” for a time “linked to our ability to recruit” so “indeterminate”. About ten positions are vacant. The tension is such that the suspension of two unvaccinated nurses has been revised. “Before suspending, we look precisely whether this does not jeopardize the safety of the management of patients or of a care team and that the continuity of the service is well assured”, indicates the director.
The patients will be cared for in other units or in nursing homes. A situation that causes the concern of the unions of the hospital but also of theUnafam, association which helps families of sick or mentally handicapped people. “We’re not going to see the effects right away, but if that continues, there will inevitably be pressure on families to take people back to their homes”, estimates Philippe Brilouet, departmental delegate of Unafam in Deux-Sèvres. Or that they end “to the street. Because once in a crisis center, it is not our vocation to stay and if there is no more room in the sectors …”.
A problem of recurring resources
Philippe Brilouet denounces a“recurring problem of resources. We need financial means, human resources” and also defends the development of alternatives to the hospitall. “We think of mutual aid groups, nurses who come to homes, accommodation structures, a new one will be inaugurated on September 27 in Saint-Pardoux, and that may perhaps free up beds”, details the representative of Unafam.
Psychiatry, which experienced a long strike movement at Niort hospital in 2018. The poor relation of the hospital? “Certainly not”, answers Bruno Faulconnier, the director “I am very attached to this service as to all services”. And to cite as an example a measure to improve things: “Nursing students are now being offered a scholarship for those who begin to engage in psychiatry”. Bruno Faulconnier specifies that there are no other scheduled closings. “There is no plan, hidden or not, which would aim to reorganize us without being talked about, no. It is simply an adaptation to a difficulty in having sufficient staff”.
–
