Toulouse. Sickness leaves, vacant positions… How many beds are closed at the CHU for lack of staff
Through David Saint Sernin
Published on
The information caused a stir. According to a flash survey led by the President of the Scientific Council, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, about one in five lit is currently closed in large French hospitals for lack of staff. 20%… A huge figure that has since been discussed, the government echoing a figure closer to 6%.
On October 27, in an interview with our colleagues from Release, here is what said the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran:
“No one today knows how to give a precise figure. Yes, there are a certain number of units in these hospitals which are temporarily obliged to close, or to reduce the wing, for lack of caregivers, especially for lack of being able to recruit ”.
3.6% of beds closed for lack of staff
What about the Toulouse University Hospital? The hospital establishment indicates that it was not “contacted directly within the framework of the investigation of the scientific council” and specifies:
“At the Toulouse University Hospital, we have vacant positions, positions to be filled, currently, we are considering and that 3.6% of beds are closed. No specialty is particularly affected. Closures can affect all services. It is generally 4 to 5 beds which close occasionally, because we do not have the staff opposite ”, explains André Weider, general coordinator of care activities at Toulouse University Hospital.
“3.6%, this still represents around 115 beds out of the 2000 which are open at the Toulouse University Hospital. It is not nothing ”, notes Julien Terrier, representative of the CGT at Toulouse University Hospital. “In particular, 32 people are missing operating room, while it is one of the lungs of the CHU. There is no room closure, but this may result in trade reports. There is also a lack of imaging staff and vacant positions for an anesthetist ”.
No closure of services
Clearly, if the Toulouse University Hospital must, like other hospitals, also face a lack of personnel, it is not affected by the closures of services as has been, or may be, happening in other establishments.
“There are difficulties, as in all establishments, but they are less than in certain territories. This is due to several factors such as the attractiveness of our establishment and the attractiveness of our territory. There are also eleven schools which train in our trades on the territory of the Toulouse University Hospital. We have the second nursing training institute, a dynamic population pool. In fact, if there are departures throughout the year, we manage to recruit, ”explains Florian Taysse, assistant to the directorate of human ressources at Toulouse University Hospital.
Covid19. How many caregivers suspended after the vaccination obligation?
The vaccination obligation weighed on the staff of the Toulouse University Hospital. “This is not the subject”, estimates the direction which counts 46 agents who do not conform to this vaccination schedule. Or 0.28% of the staff in the CHU. The CHU indicates that at present, the establishment does not register any cluster among its staff.
Recruitment campaigns
To cope with departures, and to ensure that the Toulouse University Hospital operates as normally as possible despite a certain disaffection in the health professions and absenteeism linked to the extreme fatigue accumulated by hospital staff since the start of the Covid crisis (as of November 8, 605 employees are on sick leave of the 16,010 CHU employees, indicates the management to Toulouse news), the CHU organizes regular recruitment campaigns.
It goes through virtual job dating, the most recent having taken place in September and October.
“For the 170 positions offered, there were 250 applications and 150 interviews were carried out. For nurses who just left school in July, we received 120, which is a 20% increase from 2019.
More attractive contracts
Faced with jobs in tension, the CHU has also played on the attractiveness of positions. Staff were thus able to directly access civil servant status and the more advantageous grid that goes with it. “Previously, the CHU made very precarious contracts because people wanted to come to work in Toulouse, but given the current context, the geographical attractiveness or that of the CHU is no longer sufficient”, believes Julien Terrier.
“Worse than before the health crisis”
Despite the Ségur de la Santé and the increased attractiveness of contracts, the situation remains fragile, ”according to the union representative. According to him, the climate among health professionals is a matter of disenchantment, while France entered the 19e months of the Covid epidemic and that the risk of resumption of hospital care is not ruled out for the following weeks:
“The situation was already serious before the Covid, but here it is worse. Many people are disgusted by the Ségur de la Santé, but also by the behavior of the management. During the acute crisis, she turned to care. All the means were provided to guarantee care and our working conditions were better, because there were more human and material resources. Paradoxically, at the height of the health crisis, our working conditions were almost normal. Currently, it’s the return of the world before whereas one considers that the hospital afterwards would be a hospital which would have retained something of the crisis. Or, it is again a question of profitability, we discuss advancement on merit… Today, we do not see the end of the tunnel from an epidemic point of view. We entered the health crisis with a colossal lack of resources and there, we are not filling the deficit, we are widening it … “
Tools to communicate the needs of the field
For its part, the management put tools in place to improve working conditions and raise projects from the base:
” We launched calls for innovative projects. There are two a year. A project can be built in a department or be the subject of joint work between several departments. The projects are examined by a jury. A fifteen projects was validated during the first session, ”explains Florian Taysse.
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