Dr. Pascal Marie is president of the Establishment Medical Commission (CME) of the Gérard Marchant hospital center. The psychiatrist draws a worried report on his sector, as he had already done in October 2021. A national strike movement of psychiatrists is announced for Tuesday, June 28.
Like more than 130 colleagues in Haute-Garonne, you are alerted to the situation of your specialty. Is psychiatry really bad?
When doctors speak (our June 15 edition), it is always a sign of concern. But there is sadly nothing new since our previous alert in 2019… the situation is dire. The hospital is coming out exhausted from the health crisis linked to Covid, a period during which it threw away its last efforts. The psychiatric sector is suffering from a crisis of attractiveness. In ten years, we have lost nearly 50% of psychiatrists, it continues and there are no prospects for stabilization for ten years. The caregivers are also leaving, they are generally disappointed by what the Ségur de la santé has brought; on the aspect of remuneration, there are years to catch up, but it is on the meaning of work that the demands are strongest.
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Haute-Garonne: the alert of psychiatrists on the lack of means
Is psychiatry forgotten?
Yes, it is on the aid and financing aspect. But she has never been so much in demand from patients. One in five French people will be affected during their lifetime and one in two will go through the door of a device for themselves or someone close to them. Mental illness kills more than cancer and the socio-environmental impact is enormous.
“The population has increased by 30%, psychiatric beds have been reduced by 30%”
What are the specificities of Haute-Garonne?
In 20 years, in Haute-Garonne, the population has increased by 30%. Public psychiatric beds have been reduced by 30% and represent only a quarter of the total supply. All the difficulties of the sector then crystallize in the emergency room.
What solutions can be provided?
In one year, all psychiatric emergency doctors have left or been renewed, and there are still vacancies. We are going to have to optimize the existing resource and increase the care by private clinics in their emergencies. It is absolutely necessary that the entire care offer of the territory is for the patients of the territory and that the time of care does not stop after 5 p.m. The emergency fire should not overshadow the forest behind. Even if this will be a priority question this summer, answers will also have to be provided elsewhere. Everyone knows that the summer will be complicated but it will be less so if there are prospects for the future. I am not worried about the commitment of the practitioners but about their exhaustion, we know how to do better, but can we?
Strike and demonstration by doctors Tuesday, June 28
As part of a call for a national strike, led by an inter-union of public sector psychiatrists, a day of mobilization and action is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28.
In Toulouse, the collective of psychiatrists, already the author of an alert forum, has planned a rally in front of the departmental headquarters of ARS Occitanie between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. The number of striking doctors promises to be significant.
“We want to explain the urgency of the situation and ask for help. There are still 4 doctors missing from the emergency room this summer… Some days are even unfilled in the schedule! “, explains Dr Nicolas Navarro, psychiatrist-addictologist at the University Hospital of Toulouse.
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