This Wednesday, the midwives began their eighth day of strike, at the maternity ward of the Rive-Gauche clinic, in Toulouse. More than a week now, the latter have been demanding wage increases and say they are fighting to save their profession. “We have a very good work object, capable teams but our motherhood is in danger. We keep coming back to our on-call breaks, our vacations, to make up for the missing on-calls. The team is exhausted, emissions and sick leave for burn-out follow one another ”, they regret in a common email.
Because of this strike, the Rive-Gauche clinic was forced to close its obstetric wards. She is no longer able to ensure deliveries, so transfers are carried out in conjunction with Samu 31 and the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Toulouse.
The three-level system put in place at the end of last week is still relevant, namely: “the Left Bank clinic contrary to the consultations, an obstetrician-gynecologist from the clinic is on call to reinforce the CHU teams if need and finally, the center 15 (Samu 31) takes care of the regulation when there are transfers. A link is maintained with the other maternity devices to find out the places available, ”assures Thierry Cardouat, Haute-Garonne departmental director of the Regional Health Agency (ARS Occitanie). He also said he was waiting for “a solution to end the strike”.
For his part, Olivier Geoffroy, the director of the Rive Gauche clinic ensures “that the safety of parturients is clear and organized at the regional level”. Faced with the maintenance of the strike movement, the management of Rive-Gauche explains “to be always in negotiation with the midwives”, without wanting to expand further on the subject. For the time being, the midwives have renewed their movement until Friday morning.