The unions fear a suspension of activity which could go up to four months, in this establishment which lacks midwives, gynecologists or even anesthetists.
A new illustration of the lack of nursing staff in France. In mid-April, the Regional Health Agency took the decision to suspend deliveries for at least two months at the maternity hospital in Guingamp, in the Côtes-d’Armor. The reason: teams decimated and exhausted by the absence of midwives, gynecologists or even anesthetists.
“Will they welcome me?”
In this city of just over 7,000 inhabitants, anger gives way to concern, especially among pregnant women. Mallory, who had her first child in this maternity, doubts that she can give birth again here, she who is again a few months pregnant. Despite the two-month closure, the unions indeed fear a suspension of activities of at least four months.
“We don’t have a lot of things to manage. We don’t know how the day of the birth is going to be, and when we don’t know where we’re going to give birth, it’s stressful, it’s complicated to manage”, she says on BFMTV.
Precisely on the day of the birth, if the maternity ward is not reopened by then, then Mallory will be forced to be driven by car to another hospital, located several tens of minutes from Guingamp.
“The day I go to another maternity, will they welcome me? I will not necessarily know the places, the teams. The fear is to find yourself giving birth in the car”, she laments.
“Decaying Strategy”
Locally, the population is mobilizing against this decision. West France announces that this Wednesday, the committee for the defense of the public hospital and the supply of care in the country of Guingamp is organizing a public meeting before a major demonstration organized on June 24 “for the right to be born, to live, to be cared for, to work and die in the country!” the committee said in a statement.
“This situation was predictable since we denounced from the start a strategy of decay which consisted in dissuading teams from staying and possible recruits from coming to Guingamp. It worked, it’s an exhausted team which needs to protect itself “, denounces for his part on BFMTV Yann-Fanch Durand, co-president of the committee.
The Guingamp situation is not unique in the country. According to a report presented to the Academy of Medicine, in France, 30% of small maternities have disappeared in 10 years for lack of staff. In this same report, it is indicated that it is “illusory to support” the maternities carrying out less than 1000 annual deliveries, desperately destined to disappear.
