Monday May 22, a man stabbed 2 caregivers at Reims hospital. One of them, a nurse, died. This attack brings back painful memories in Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) where on March 29, a hospital civil servant was attacked with a knife. The anger of caregivers who are increasingly victims of patients but also of their institution cannot be appeased.
For several years, caregivers have been warning about their working conditions and the violence of which they are increasingly victims.
This Monday, May 22, two caregivers at Reims hospital were the victim of a knife attack by a patient. One of them, a nurse, did not survive. A drama that revives painful memories in Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne).
On March 29, a young man also stabbed several caregivers at the hospital center. This 26-year-old man was hospitalized in the Montauban psychiatric hospital. He injured 3 people, including a woman seriously.
Today, the days of this hospital worker are no longer in danger, but his nursing colleagues remain in shock. Especially since after this dramatic attack, life resumed its course, with almost no change.
“Nothing has been put in place, we are still waiting”, is indignant Serge Leguenauf, FO Health delegate. The union asked for the car park to be secured, the installation of cameras and security locks in certain sensitive sectors of the hospital center. “ We have been asking for financial means for months to be able to carry out these files. We feel like we are not being listened to.
The ARS does not answer us, we have no answer when we have been warning about these dangers for years. We feel like numbers, pawns, not human beings. At present, we are sick of working in the hospital.
Serge Leguenauf, FO Health delegate
A disgust shared by caregivers, especially since since the attack, their working conditions have further deteriorated. “Since then, 20 more psychiatric beds have been closed,” deplores Agnès Seguela, departmental delegate FO Health. “10 more beds will close at the end of June, for lack of staff, both nurses and psychiatrists. The direct consequence? It’s that the psychiatric emergencies, which are just opposite, find themselves with patients who wait for hours and hours. And who then stay 10 or 15 days in completely unsuitable services.”
The repercussions can then be dramatic because in the event of psychic decompensation, time is essential. “Before, patients who were decompensating were seen by a psychiatrist in the emergency room. But now, because of the lack of psychiatrists, these patients are not seen in the evening. They have to wait all night and sometimes even until 10am the next morning. It is this kind of situation that generates the passages to the act.
Patricia Lanco-Saint-Guily is a general practitioner in Toulouse. 8 years ago, she was confined for 4 hours in her office by a patient demanding a prescription for narcotics. She was released by the BAC.
For Doctor Lanco-Saint-Guily, these attacks on nursing staff are not new to emergencies. But more and more numerous, they are indicative of the decline of the French health system. “Fewer and fewer people work in care services because these careers are no longer attractive, they are poorly paid”analyzes the doctor. “The emergency services are extremely damaged by the constant influx of patients and the care is lengthening and deteriorating, this is also what explains these tragedies.”
A situation also experienced in medical offices. “Our working conditions have deteriorated so much that we can’t take it anymore, we’re all exhausted. Half of the doctors are in burn-out”s’indigne Patricia Lanco-Saint-Guily. “But there is not the political courage to assume it. We know people are already dying. I already see deaths in my patient population because they cannot be taken care of properly in the hospital, or because they cannot be taken care of properly by my specialist colleagues. Because to go see such a specialist, there is a 6-month delay, the caregivers are all overbooked.”
A situation that she looks like institutional abuse. “She terrorizes young doctors who no longer want to settle down”she adds. “They underpay us, they recover constantly and always more sums without explaining to us why. I am horrified by what we are doing to a profession that has done a lot of studies and is doing a great service to the population.
Following his attack, the complaint of doctor Lanco-Saint-Guily never succeeded. Contrary to that of the aggressor patient.
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