Since Thursday evening, patients can no longer give birth at the Victor Pauchet clinic. In the context of the midwives’ strike, management believes that it can no longer take care of them safely.
It is an indefinite closure. The maternity ward of the private clinic Victor Pauchet, in Amiens, on Thursday evening, November 18, stopped welcoming women followed in the establishment and about to give birth. A decision, communicated in particular via social networks, which follows according to the structure of a “last minute strike movement“of his midwives. Mobilized since October 22, the 27 professionals had so far been requisitioned.
“We have an uncertainty related to sick leaves which does not make it possible to guarantee, in the hours or days to come, the permanent presence of the nursing staff and in particular of the midwives., motivates Stéphan de Butler d’Ormond, president of Groupe Santé Victor Pauchet. Without the guarantee of nursing staff, we could put the patients who come to us at risk..”
Our goal is to ensure the safety of care. Until it is secured, we cannot reopen.
Stéphan de Butler d’Ormond, President of the Victor Pauchet Healthcare Group
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A speech disputed by Céline Marton, employee of the clinic who sees this closure as a way of “to put midwives up to the wall with this medical and emotional responsibility that[‘elles] port[ent]”. “Obviously we think of our patients: we are in the first row to understand what they may feel today“, she underlines, before adding:”This shortage of midwives, this problem of healthcare provision, in any case is at the heart of our demands. It is only the highlighting of the problem that we denounce.”
The women are transferred to other establishments, in particular the University Hospital of Amiens where two of them have already given birth. A support that was made “without difficulty“according to Arthur Foulon, gynecologist-obstetrician in the department. He recognizes, however, the increased activity generated:” There, the birthing rooms are almost full, about half of the patients being followed initially in the maternity ward of the clinic Pauchet. “
The experience remains “quite scary“for future mothers, nuance Florence Friant, midwife at the CHU.”It is a choice at the outset, either to go to a clinic or to go to the hospital, she emphasizes. The project is being built: they have discovered the place, they have their referent both at the doctor and midwife level for the preparation. There, they find themselves in an environment where they don’t know anyone. “But she herself says to herself, along with her colleagues”totally united“of their sisters.
Today midwives no longer feel safe. They no longer feel that they are doing their job properly, that they are providing what they have to offer to women, and it is precisely on this that we are asking for an urgent review of the decrees and an urgent implementation of staff.
Céline Marton, midwife at the Victor Pauchet clinic
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The profession has indeed been mobilized across France for several months. Lack of recognition, wages too low, insufficient staff: their demands are numerous. Victor Pauchet’s midwives therefore intend to send a letter to the President of the Republic before meeting on Monday in Amiens, the day when Emmanuel Macron is due to visit there.
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