“The staff are exhausted”: strike and demonstration in front of the emergency room of the Montpellier University Hospital

Une partie des agents qui manifestaient ce mercredi 5 février. ML – GR

Several dozen staff demonstrated this Wednesday morning in front of the emergency department of the CHU. They are asking for additional human resources to cope with the continued increase in the number of people using their department, with increasingly fragile patients.

Despite the cold, several dozen emergency department staff demonstrated this Wednesday morning at the CHU. The music and cups of coffee gave energy to the staff who had started an unlimited strike. The message “Striking staff assigned to work” was displayed on their coats.

Since the 180 visits per day recorded during the end-of-year holidays, management has taken a series of measures (reopening of downstream beds, provision of pediatric boxes, reinforcement of a nursing assistant pair, etc.). But the agents' anger has not subsided.

“Insufficient measures”

“These measures are insufficient in the short term, because we lack qualified and permanent staff, deplores Pierre Renard, CGT-CHU delegate. As long as there is no recruitment, the strike will continue. Management does not understand that colleagues are exhausted, and an extra day of work in these conditions is enormous.”

“We are welcoming a growing and aging population, with more in addition to psychological problems, observes Laurent Brun, secretary of FO-CHU and emergency room staff for nine years, until 2012. This translates into staff suffering and more and more departures, but also into degraded care for the population.”

“When there is a strike, things go better”

“The emergency rooms recorded 63,600 visits in 2024, or 5,500 more than in 2023, indicated Philippe Peretti, assistant secretary of CGT-CHU. We are being asked towait until 2028 and the renovation of the hospital to have a prospect of improvement, but it is impossible under these conditions.”

The social movement has not resulted in a deterioration of the service. “When there is a strike, things go even better in the services, because the assigned staff must be present, observes Pierre Renard. Whereas usually, it is common for sick leave not to be replaced.”

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