TourTour In turn, in waves, fear, anger and comfort ran through the assembly of caregivers gathered on Thursday, June 27, 2024, in an amphitheater at the Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris.
First, fear. That of Kendrys Legenty, medical student and founder of La fabrique des soignants, which broadcasts programs on healthcare professions: “Today I’m afraid. I oscillate between tetany and revolt. I’m afraid that the rights of patients will be erased, I’m afraid of the consequences of the color of my skin, and I’m far from being the only one. »
The mobilization of caregivers on June 27 in Paris against the far right. © Caroline Coq-Chodorge / Mediapart
Enlarge image: Illustration 1
The nurse at the Saint-Denis hospital center (Seine-Saint-Denis) Yasmina Kettal, who worked in the emergency room at the height of the covid, insisted on the fate of all healthcare workers, if the extreme right came to power: “It’s hard to be the last mistreating hand, it damages you. » If state medical aid were abolished, if regional health agencies were eliminated and the health system managed by a prefect delegated to health – some of the proposals of the National Rally (RN) – then “How will the sick be sorted?”she asked herself. « Where will we stop? When patients arrive at the hospital in an emergency, and ultimately cost more, what will we do? Will we let them die? »
There was the full diversity of healthcare professions there: from nursing assistants to medical professors, from general practitioners in health centers to humanitarian doctors, from medical students to seasoned healthcare executives. Men and women, racialized and non-racialized people, French and foreign people, of all ages. However, there was a sense of togetherness in this amphitheater, with participants having the same ethics of care deeply rooted in their bodies and similar political convictions.
What does the hospital think more broadly? “We have feedback from caregivers who don’t understand what we’re doing, it’s violent, explains Antoine Pelissolo, head of the psychiatry department at the Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil (Val-de-Marne), also a member of the Socialist Party (PS). But we also see some who we would not have suspected of wanting to get involved, and who are caught in the gut. »
Fear of losing everything
In the corridors of Saint-Louis hospital in Paris, nursing assistant Corinne Jac sees that “people avoid the subject, to avoid conflict. But [elle] doesn’t see[t] not believe that there are many RN votes » : “Diversity is our strength. I tell them to go and vote, otherwise on the 8th [juillet], we are all in a dugout heading I don’t know where. »
Corinne Jac, nursing assistant at Saint-Louis hospital in Paris. © Caroline Coq-Chodorge / Mediapart
Enlarge image: Illustration 2
Shameful questions a few days ago have become urgent: ” I am Frenchreplies Corinne Jac, my family comes from Martinique. I am a baby from the public hospital, we are caregivers from mother to daughter. » Then she shows her skin: “I am black!” And she talks about her shift in the emergency room the day before, alongside a “Tunisian doctor”. “He’s freaked out, this isn’t normal.”
This fear of losing everything has been something that practitioners with diplomas from outside the European Union (Padhue) have had for a long time. “Despite all the promises, we must fight for them to keep their residence permit”, annoys Antoine Pelissolo, head of the psychiatry department at Henri-Mondor hospital. He does not want to believe that the RN would go further: “Without all these foreign caregivers, the health system will collapse. The population would be furious. »
« We are facing difficult human situationshowever, warns Jean-François Corty, president of Médecins du monde. We need to document them. And we need to fight so that caregivers are not criminalized.”
Then comes the anger, that of Olivier Milleron, cardiologist at Bichat hospital in Paris: “How is it possible, after Covid, that the debate on health is reduced to state medical aid, which represents 0.5% of health expenditure? We have been devoured by people on TV sets who peddle nauseating ideas. This assembly must be the start of something…”
The caregivers present are all signatories of a platform published by West Francein the form of a profession of faith: “The fundamental right to health, enshrined in our Constitution, is at the heart of our Republican pactthey write. Health is a fundamental human right and a pillar of social cohesion. Any discriminatory policy aimed at restricting access to care for certain populations is an attack on these principles. Taking care of each person means preserving the health of all: this essential principle of our profession cannot be forgotten.
More than 5,000 people have already signed it, including the president of Médecins du Monde Jean-François Corty, the president of the AP-HP medical establishment commission Rémi Salomon and Bruno Riou, dean of the Sorbonne-Université faculty of medicine.
In the audience, many receive worried confidences from patients. General practitioner Aurélie Sautereau, who works at the Saint-Denis health center, explains that some refuse sick leave that she nevertheless wants to prescribe for them: “They fear never being regularizeds if they take sick leave. They are maintenance workers, construction workers. »
Sylvie Le Gac, health executive at Bichat hospital in a department that cares for HIV-positive people, says “the fear that the associations with which [elle] work are deprived of budget, the fear for [ses] Migrant patients, gays, trans. All are threatened by the RN. This must not happen”.
