Toulouse Rive Gauche clinic: the maternity unit still closed on Tuesday
Due to the strike of his midwives, the delivery rooms of the Rive Gauche clinic in Toulouse have been closed since Saturday. Pending discussions with the strikers, the management of the establishment does not plan to reopen the maternity unit on Tuesday, November 2. Pregnant women are referred to other maternity hospitals in the Toulouse conurbation.
As at the L’Union clinic last month, midwives at the Rive Gauche clinic in Toulouse raised their voice in their protest movement for the upgrading of their status.
By going on a surprise strike on Saturday and for the whole weekend with a public holiday at the end, they led their management to temporarily close the birthing blocks of the maternity hospital. All the mothers-to-be in foster care were therefore redirected to other establishments in the Toulouse conurbation. But when the first private maternity hospital in Toulouse closes, between 5 and 10 patients per day must be accommodated elsewhere …
Discussions scheduled for Tuesday
“Fortunately, all the maternities played the game but this created tense situations with future mothers calling us in front of the door of the clinic while they were feeling contractions”, testifies Prof. Vincent Bounes, owner of Samu 31.
The impact was also significant in the emergency room of the maternity ward of the Paule-de-Viguier hospital (CHU, University Hospital Center, Toulouse). “It was necessary not only to welcome women ready to give birth but also all those who had lost fluid or felt their baby move, which the perinatal network can usually take care of during the week”, testifies Dr. Paul Guerby, obstetrician gynecologist, responsible from the Paule-de-Viguier maternity unit where a cesarean section has been reported and births due to deliveries delayed by one to two days to cope with this additional arrival of patients.
The situation should remain further complicated on Tuesday, November 2, even if the strike movement was announced as ending at 8 a.m. “We will begin discussions on Tuesday so we are not taking any risks, we are keeping the block closed,” explains Olivier Geoffroy, director of the Rive Gauche clinic. “Better recognition and statutory upgrading for midwives is legitimate. But this is a decision at the national level, not our establishment which is bound by the collective agreement of the Federation of private hospitalization (FHP) ”, continues the director.
“We are fighting for our patients”
On the side of the strikers, the decision to trigger a “black weekend” weighs. “We love our patients, we do not want to hurt them, we fight for them” testifies a midwife on strike. She continues: “Our profession is governed by perinatal decrees dating from 1998! The demands of women have changed, they want to be active in their childbirth and for that we need more midwives to support them. Our profession needs recognition and salaries which correspond to our skills, both in the private sector and in the public ”
3,800 deliveries per year
The maternity ward of the Rive Gauche clinic in Toulouse (merger of the Sarrus-Teinturiers and Saint-Nicolas clinics in 2015) takes care of 3,800 deliveries per year, which makes it the first maternity hospital in the private sector in the Toulouse metropolitan area. It is classified in level 2 because it benefits from a neonatal service.
On the public side, the maternity unit of the Paule-de-Viguier hospital (Toulouse University Hospital), the only level 3 maternity unit in the former Midi-Pyrénées region, carries out nearly 5,000 deliveries per year.
The Rive Gauche clinic was bought in June 2021 by the Clinavenir group, an alliance of independent clinics in Occitanie. The maternity ward represents 40% of the activity of this Toulouse establishment, which has 238 beds and places and 20 operating theaters.