President Macron, who has been limiting his interventions since his re-election, returned to the field on Wednesday May 31 and on a burning subject: the hospital. While emergency physicians are warning about the risks of service closures this summer, he announced that a « mission flash » would offer “operational solutions” June 28. The next day, Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounced, for his part, “ultra-liberalism”responsible according to him for « the collapse » from the public hospital.
Less than two weeks before the first round of the legislative elections, the theme of health was thus invited at the end of the campaign. In Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), which was the first city to suffer from the Covid epidemic in the spring of 2020, the subject is sensitive.
“The situation remains very fragile”
This is “a serious concern”confirms Nadia El Hajjaji (Nupes), who describes a population that is younger and poorer than the average. “There are no more doctors in town. This creates a medical escheat which contributes to the overcrowding of the emergencies”, continues the Generation-s party activist. The candidate also points out that, since January 1, patients who do not have mutual insurance pay out of pocket €19.61 for a visit to the emergency room not followed by hospitalization. “This needs to be removed”affirmed Nadia El Hajjaji.
The two outgoing candidates of the 5th and 6th constituencies, Olivier Becht (Agir ensemble) and Bruno Fuchs (MoDem), who are running under the label of the majority “Together”, recognize the tense situation of the public hospital but insist on this which has been done for five years. The emergency mobilization movement of 2019 had pushed the Philippe government to take out the checkbook.
“In Mulhouse, we only had seven doctors left for 24 posts, we were on the verge of breaking up, she remembers Olivier Becht. We have now returned to 21 doctors, but the situation remains, it is true, very fragile. » As for Bruno Fuchs, he points out that as part of the Ségur de la santé, in the summer of 2020, 40 million euros were released for the construction of a new building, which will notably house emergencies.
Health “at the heart of discussions”
But the health issues go far beyond the public hospital. Behind, the whole organization of the system is threatened by the crises that health professionals are going through. In the 6th constituency which, beyond Mulhouse, is very large, with a large rural area where Marine Le Pen scored high in the presidential election (56% in the second round in Wittenheim for example), the RN candidate Christelle Ritz states it: “Out of five to eight doctors retiring, only one is replaced. Health is at the heart of discussions, wherever I go. »
It proposes to improve the system of public aid for the creation of medical centers, and to work better upstream on the attractiveness of the professions. “Since nursing training has integrated the Parcoursup orientation system, many candidates are heading towards this sector without a real vocation, which explains the high drop-out rate”, she analyzes.
A border territory of Switzerland, the Haut-Rhin also suffers from the exodus of professionals who go there to seek much higher salaries. For Bruno Fuchs, it would be desirable to rely on this specificity to think “a cross-border health policy” which would make it possible in particular to unclog the Mulhouse hospital. But it is not in the projects of the Regional Health Agency, regrets the elected official.
Florian Colom, LR candidate in the 5th district, also criticizes, beyond the means, a problem of governance. “The refinancing of the hospital goes through the debureaucratization of health. We have too many administrators, not enough caregivers,” decides the municipal councilor of Mulhouse, who also calls for a fight against fraud with the Vitale card.
Ecologist Léonie Hébert, candidate (Nupes) in the 6th, highlights other priorities. “I tow these days in a neighborhood where the median annual income is €9,000, says the candidate. With poverty, psychiatric disorders are numerous and are not taken care of. »
A situation that feeds “neighborhood disturbances and crime”testifies Léonie Hébert, thus underlining that health is, in the same way as safety or education, a major political subject.
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