Reopening of emergencies, 12-hour guard duty, reinforcement of staff… These are the main requests made this Tuesday, December 10 by the Executive Commission of the CGT union of the departmental fire and rescue service (Sdis 29). Gathered at the Carhaix barracks for their monthly meeting, the fifteen representatives present took stock of the difficulties encountered in their missions for several months.
Insufficient operational coverage
“Many places in the department are not covered or at least effectively covered by the firefighters,” declares Patrice Dupont, chief warrant officer and CGT delegate of the Carhaix firefighters. This situation is particularly problematic in Carhaix, where the closure of night emergencies forces ambulances in the Spézet, Carhaix, Châteauneuf and Gourin sectors to travel much longer. “The journeys can now take up to three hours to reach Brest, Quimper, Morlaix, Quimperlé, Guingamp…, instead of one hour previously,” specifies the CGT delegate. This situation reduces the workforce available for local interventions in Carhaix. “Transport should not be our main mission,” insists the chief warrant officer, stressing that patients should be able to be treated close to home. If, for the moment, emergency services are able to intervene, this is done in “degraded mode”. “Sometimes, instead of leaving in a van with six firefighters and the ladder, we only leave with four,” adds Patrice Dupont.
“The workload is getting heavier and heavier”
At the departmental level, working conditions, particularly during 24-hour shifts in large centers, are becoming more and more difficult. “The workload is increasing, and with the retirement age rising, many agents want to switch to a 12-hour on-call schedule to properly end their careers.”
In Carhaix, volunteer firefighters are also particularly exposed to this exhausting pace. The latter, who provide night and weekend duty in addition to their 35-hour week, “work many more hours of night transport than before, which tires them even more”.
Reopening of emergencies and strengthening of staff
The union is demanding as a priority the rapid reopening of the emergency rooms at Carhaix hospital, in service 24 hours a day. Ultimately, the union plans to increase its workforce, a measure made difficult by the reduction in funding from local authorities according to the CGT delegate. The union is therefore asking the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and the chief doctor of Brest to release additional resources to allow the reopening of the two lines of doctors. Without rapid measures, firefighters fear that a dramatic case could occur.