Emergencies on the brink of closure

Access to the Emergency Department of the Orleans hospital is getting tougher, in the face of the numerous sick leaves of staff in great suffering. For a week, almost all caregivers have been arrested. This Monday, April 4, only two nurses were present in the emergency room; there they are usually ten. There was also only one nursing assistant, compared to the usual 7. Faced with this lack of personnel, to access the service, even in the event of a life-threatening emergency, it is now imperative to contact the 15, which will then decide whether or not to direct the patients to the Emergency Department of the CHRO.

An “unacceptable” situation for the CGT

This new restriction in access to Emergencies revolts Dorine Lemasson, CGT delegate at the CHRO: “an emergency department closed, it’s unacceptable to hear that in the Loiret, where there are still problems [d’accès] to city doctors, at the level of health care. For months, we have had the same discourse: we are short of staff, we are closing beds because we are lacking nurses, we are lacking caregivers, but this discourse we can no longer hear. In the Emergency Department, they are on their fifth right of withdrawal. The staff is really in pain, they are at a point of no return. These personnel are indeed arrested for a few days, but they may not return.“Fears the union representative.

The management of the hospital also deplores this situation. Crisis meetings follow one another, to try to find urgent solutions. “Basically, the problem is that there are 150 beds closed for lack of nurses“explains the director general of the CHRO Olivier Boyer. If solutions are put in place on this problem in particular, they will take time to have concrete effects on the ground, recognizes the director. Faced with the urgency of the situation, hospital stays are shortened when possible to free up space, and the flow of patients is redirected to other establishments.

A crisis meeting this Monday

A meeting of the crisis unit was organized this Monday, April 4. The CGT asks that staff members and their union representatives also be involved in these discussions. The syndicate quickly call for a round table, in the presence of the management of the CHRO, the Regional Health Agency, and the prefecture. “This must be settled with all the actors (…) We cannot not sit around a table, and put everything flat“explains Sylvie Bertuit, departmental secretary of the CGT health in the Loiret. The director general of the hospital, Olivier Boyer, underlines that the employees and their union representatives are consulted during meetings. Admittedly, it is not a table round which would bring together all the actors as requested by the CGT recognizes the general manager, but the dialogue exists well.A meeting must thus take place this Wednesday between the union delegates, the management, and the mayor of Orleans.

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