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It is the turn of the hospital psychiatrists to mobilize this Tuesday, November 29 against the dilapidation of the public service. The lack of beds and the closure of medico-psychological centers are particularly decried.
This Tuesday, November 29, hospital psychiatrists are angry. Throughout France, four organizations are calling for strikes and demonstrations, notably in Paris, in front of the Ministry of Health. Rallies are also announced in other cities, in front of regional health agencies (ARS) or hospitals.
An “abandonment” of public psychiatry according to the unions
At the heart of their demands, the unions primarily denounce a “abandonment of public psychiatry” notable, which is concretely characterized today by a crying lack of full hospitalization beds, and regular closures of medico-psychological centers (CMP) throughout the country. A situation that can only worsen in the face of the shortage of doctors and nurses, which today affects “five out of six hospitals“.
“We no longer have the capacity to treat as we would like”laments the Dr Norbert Skurnik, president of the Inter-union for the defense of public psychiatry (Idepp) in a press release. According to this psychiatrist, for lack of reception, “in Île-de-France alone, 60 to 70,000 people, at least 60% of whom are mentally ill, wander outside any institution and any home“.
A specialty that no longer has the means to attract young doctors
For Dr. Skurnik, it is this context of tougher conditions that leads to a lack of staff. “The specialty no longer attracts young doctors” he mentions citing the figure of 100 interns to be distributed in the Paris region, where 150 are needed. According to him, a 20 to 25% increase in the salaries of hospital psychiatrists, in the form of hardship bonuses, would be necessary to promote recruitment.
Thus, the plan announced by Emmanuel Macron after the assizes of psychiatry more than a year ago, which notified the creation of 800 positions in the CMP, is considered insufficient by the profession. “It’s just a small step”regret the Dr Rachel Bocher, President of the National Intersyndicate of Hospital Practice Practitioners (INPH).
Before the Senate in mid-November, the Minister of Health François Braun had recognized that psychiatric personnel work in difficult conditions, and promised that a report would be drawn “very soon” from the meetings organized in September 2021. The profession expects it a lot.