A hundred people demonstrated this Saturday in Paris. They demanded respect for the limitation of the work of medical interns to 48 hours per week.
Dressed in white blouses, the protesters marched at around 2 pm from the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris to the Ministry of Health, at the call of the National Intersyndicale des Internes (Isni).
Working hours greatly exceeded
Some carried stickers “48 hours of strike for 48 hours per week. Hourly count”, or signs “48 hours interns exhausted, patients in danger!”.
“We are on strike for 48 hours because it is the weekly working limit in the law. After this limit, it becomes dangerous for caregivers, which can lead to burn-out, depression. We are also dangerous for patients. We are also dangerous. barely stands, impossible to make technical gestures “, explained Gaétan Casanova, president of Isni, denouncing” professional exhaustion “.
“I work a lot, often much more than 48 hours a week. When I was in the pediatric emergency room, my record was 92 hours,” said Pauline, 28, intern in Lille.
“While on call on a Sunday at 5 am, I was woken up after going to bed 30 minutes before. I didn’t have my eyes in front of the holes. A child came in for vomiting, I thought of gastro and I didn’t see the other symptoms, although he actually had acute hepatitis. That’s when I realized I could be dangerous. That’s when I realized I could be dangerous. proof that when you work for 22 hours, you are a zombie “.
Burnout
“I want the situation of medical interns to improve. I have a daughter who committed suicide by taking medication following professional exhaustion”, testified Laurence Marbach, who founded the association Lipseim (League for the health of students and medical interns) to do prevention.
The demonstrators also intended to denounce “the pressure, with abusive assignments and blackmail of the chiefs in relation to the diplomas”, explained Gaétan Casanova.
“Some teachers go beyond their rights by asking for anything and everything. There is a very big pressure,” added Carole Decaester, whose son Laurent committed suicide at the age of 30, after ten years of studying medicine.
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