HEALTH. Carried by the Copil “Health equality”, the demonstration which took place on Saturday June 11, the day before the legislative elections in Langres, brought together 2,200 people. An influx which has reinforced caregivers and elected officials in their fight to preserve the quality of care in the south of Haute-Marne.
The last call for demonstrations, on February 12, 2022, to protest against the care gradation project which puts the future of the Langrois hospital at stake, the anger of the South-Haut-Marnais rose another notch. Proof of this is the much higher attendance, this time reaching 2,200 people compared to 1,200 the previous time. Demonstrators who went up rue Diderot to the eponymous square with a single slogan sung to the sound of the percussion of the Lyre cheminote: “The hospital is ours, leave it there”. Demonstrators from all over South-Haut-Marne: residents, elected officials and healthcare staff, including Chaumont doctors like Christophe Brémard, full member of the Order of Physicians, who came to support Langres. “We have the same problems as you and destroying Langres will not save Chaumont. We do not have the capacity to absorb the activity of Langres, just as Langres will not be able to absorb Chaumont. So survival depends on maintaining two hospitals. On paper, the ARS plan works 500 on one side, 500 on the other. But the reality is patients, caregivers with degraded working conditions. In Chaumont, we find ourselves with services closed for lack of personnel, which means a loss of chance for patients. The order of doctors is completely in solidarity with the action of Langres because it is about the survival of the supply of care for the south of the department. »
“Intellectual Fraud”
Words that found an echo in the statements of five other doctors, two union representatives and the president of the association Avenir sud santé Haute-Marne, Matthieu Thiébaud who denounced a technocratic and administrative management of health. A management far from the needs of patients and detached from the working conditions of caregivers who are out of breath. “You should know that out of the seven nurses who retired, only one position was opened for recruitment! “, underlined Dr. Didier Soumaire. With him, Olivier Delong, David Bernard, Laurence Collot, François Molli, just like their colleague from Bourbonne-les-Bains, clearly denounced a current management which jeopardizes the three hospitals and a project which they consider to be a “scam intellectual”. “Langoise surgery works well. There are more than 4,000 interventions per year in Langres, 15% of which are emergencies. (…) If surgery disappears, what will become of these people? If that happens it will be a waste of luck and I think it’s unacceptable, ”said Olivier Delong.
Speeches applauded by the demonstrators who also pledged to support health professionals in this fight to guarantee a supply of care worthy of the name for the territory.
Patricia Charmelot
“We will not hesitate to submit our resignation to the prefect”
The elected officials were numerous on Saturday in Langres, and not to make up the numbers but with a commitment, announced by the president of the PETR, Eric Darbot. “We demand a clear and transparent framework from the ARS. Our doctors have a health project. We will be attentive and intractable in the face of the return of the ARS. Otherwise, we, the three presidents of communities of municipalities and the mayor of Langres, will not hesitate to submit our resignation to the prefect and we hope to have the support of the mayors. Access to care is a right and we have a duty to demand the best for our territory. “A statement in which Eric Darbot returned to the various requests made to the ARS still unanswered; on the orientation committees where the elected officials have the impression “of being the guarantees of an organization (…) with which we want to distance ourselves” before affirming: “There must be a before and a after June 11, 2022! »
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