Members of the staff of the Clinique Bernoise Montana testify to a toxic work climate

A survey carried out by Rhône FM reports disastrous working conditions at the Clinique Bernoise Montana. Former employees denounce dysfunctions in the internal organization as well as in the care of patients. One of them declares that in six months “five patients killed themselves by jumping from balconies”.

The risk of speaking

Politics of fear, harassment, understaffing and overwork: the medical staff is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Several witnesses confided to having burned out and seen many of their colleagues resign or be fired. According to sources from Rhône FM, three quarters of the clinic’s staff – 220 employees, all departments combined – have left in recent years. The situation is such that patients at this medical and neurological rehabilitation facility “sleep in their urine or become dehydrated for fear of having to call to go to the bathroom,” the article continues.

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The health crisis has given rise to structural reorganizations “which have gone far too far and at far too great a human cost”, estimates a former employee. She does not hesitate to use the term “dictatorship.” She tried to speak out about this deleterious climate but “saying things was pointless. It was sometimes even worse. I was professionally isolated and ended up becoming fragile. ”

A colleague confided that several employees went to the human resources office to report these problems. “But it was always the same thing, if you tried to speak up, you risked retaliation,” she said. Not for speaking out, but for reasons that had nothing to do with it. “

Access to toilets

Asked about these cases, the director of the clinic, Benoît Emery, announces that a whistleblower has just informed him of situations of internal mobbing and harassment and that an external audit has been ordered. He adds that the number of suicides and departures estimated by witnesses does not correspond to his data: the turnover rate of the Clinique Bernoise Montana is 20%, there were five layoffs last year, 12 employees are currently on sick leave and there have been five suicides in ten years.

Regarding the alleged mistreatment of patients, Benoît Emery replies that the “infrastructures are of a certain age” and that some of the patients “have to move to the other side of the corridor to reach the toilets”, but that investments to install toilets in the rooms are provided. “We have had faulty urinary catheters for a long time. The caregivers noticed in the morning that the pockets had exploded […] Nurses respect patients’ sleep, so we’re not going to ask them to check the sheets for wetness at all times. ”

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To fight against the policy of fear decried in this survey, the director recalls that his “door and that of human resources are always open to discuss potential problems”.

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