In Carhaix, strong popular mobilization this Monday for the maintenance of hospital services [Vidéo] – Carhaix

A mobilization that lives up to expectations. This Monday afternoon, May 9, there were more than 600 people, in the courtyard of the Carhaix hospital, shouting their determination. In the crowd, many hospital workers of course, but also elected officials from all over the Cob Country, and simple citizens pumped up. At the origin of this anger, the announcement by management, a week earlier, of the temporary closure of the continuing care unit as of this Monday, and the consolidation, by the summer, of surgery and of general medicine.

«Brutal ad»

“A brutal announcement which hinted at the transformation of the hospital into a geriatric establishment, and this without any consultation, believes Caroline Tromeur, CGT delegate. But the mobilization of all made it possible to suspend this unacceptable decision, ”she said. Alain Guéguen, mayor of Plouguernével, departmental councilor and member of the supervisory board of the CHU of Brest-Carhaix, returned to the presentation of the hospital establishment project which he was able to attend last December: “We were presented telemedicine, geriatric excellence or psychiatry projects, but nothing on maternity or emergencies”, he was surprised, recalling the “indispensability of the Carhaisian hospital in a hyperrural environment where the population is economically brittle. We know the correlation between economic fragility and the consumption of care”.

The “temporary” character decried

Even if the intervention of MP Richard Ferrand with the Minister of Health made it possible to obtain a reprieve, many today fear the “temporary” nature of the decision to maintain services. The mayor of Carhaix, Christian Troadec, echoed this: “The same thing happened in 2007. We were alerted to a threat about the possible closure of the maternity ward and surgery, but this did not happen. It was only after the elections that they came to stab us in the back,” he said, recalling? “the long mobilization”. “I recognize here in the crowd all those who were the keystones of this battle of 2007”, he launched, before the crowd chanted the famous slogan of 2007, “Carhaix, Carhaix, re-sis- tance”. The catapult, a strong symbol of the 2008 resistance, was also taken out of its shed for a group photo in front of the management building.

Warranties

The 2007-2008 crisis was therefore on everyone’s lips. “History repeats itself 14 years later, but our determination remains the same, the Carhaix hospital being a determining element of the health security of the territory”, estimates the CFDT delegate Sophie Lévénez, who demands “the permanent maintenance of all activities “. Pays Cob health referent, Jean-Pierre Hémon considers for his part that “the situation is not quite the same as in 2008, even if we must maintain the same vigilance, the same combativeness. As long as we do not have commitments on the scale of the offer and on the sustainability, we will not be reassured”, he affirms, considering all the same that “a few windows of opportunity have been opened by quick and decisive reaction. There are things in the minister’s response, which we should be able to make prosper, ”he thinks.