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According to information from France Bleu Nord, due to a lack of sufficient doctors, women ready to give birth or in neonatology in Lille had to be transferred to other hospitals, as far as Belgium. A new symptom of the hospital crisis?
They were due to give birth at the Jeanne de Flandre maternity ward at the Lille hospital center, but their birth plan was urgently revised. According to information France Blue North revealed this weekend, due to a lack of a sufficient number of doctors, the Lille neonatology department redirected its patients and newborns to other hospitals in the region but also in Belgium.
Unable to manage the volume of activity
“Due to a restriction in neonatal capacity linked to the absence of doctors, the hospital called on partner maternity wards” the hospital told Agence France Presse. Patients were thus sent to clinics in Roubaix, to the Bois and Saint-Vincent clinics in Lille, but also to Valenciennes and the Charleroi hospital center in Belgium. Without giving figures, the hospital justifies itself:
“The simultaneous absences of doctors prevent the remaining medical team from managing the children. We currently do not have the capacity to manage the usual volume of activity in neonatology”.
However, the establishment affirms this: serious and complex cases remain at the Jeanne de Flandres maternity ward which is level 3 (able to accommodate high-risk pregnancies). “It’s a temporary problem.” depending on the establishment.
A growing shortage of personnel throughout France
Contacted by Doctissimo, Dr Eric Reboli, spokesperson for National Union of Hospital Replacement Doctors is not the least bit surprised by this announcement. “Lille is the big wheel of the carriage, but for 9 months, the list of maternity ward closures is long (Lannion, Guigamps, Sarlat, Millau, etc.) due to the lack of gynecologists, but also of anesthesiologists or pediatricians” he reveals.
A chronic shortage which is increasing everywhere in France, and which is not really covered by the government for the doctor. “Employees have been leaving hospitals for years because they can no longer stand the hours, the pressure, the salary, the working conditions. And in large maternity wards, it’s a factory rhythm. It’s hellish. In this context, 80% of replacements left for the liberal or private sector, on the verge of burnout. They won’t come back.”
Closing small maternity wards weighs on larger ones
Concerning maternity wards, the doctor paints an even less optimistic future. “After closing maternity wards which had fewer than 500 deliveries per year, the government now intends to close clinics which have between 500 and 1000 births to open larger centers. But let’s be logical, these large centers will be incapable of absorbing all the births from the clinics. As CHUs are incapable of absorbing CH regulations at night. There is a problem with the communicating vessels which are not working.”
32 billion euros for health. And after ?
As if to respond to this lack of resources in hospitals, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal traveling to Dijon on Saturday announced 32 billion more injected into health within 5 years. A short-term solution? Not really, since we know today that it is a reminder of the evolution of health spending as provided for by the public finance programming law. Nothing new then. “It’s an announcement effect and pure PR, to ease tensions, but it was already planned. Then let’s not forget one principle: it’s nice to give money but it doesn’t do much good if it’s given to the wrong place. As long as we have not increased the salaries of all doctors, both in hospitals and in private practice, we will go to the wall.” concludes Dr. Reboli without appeal.