The defense committee of the Ariège Couserans hospital center had organized a public meeting in Engomer, this Friday, June 9, 2023, in order to mobilize the inhabitants in the face of a “severely degraded” situation within the hospital. A demonstration will also soon take place in Saint-Girons.
Murmurs took hold of the village hall of Engomer. In Ariège, the care offer is a topic that gets people talking. On the territory of Couserans, it is sometimes even scold. For several months, public meetings have been linked. The CGT and the Chac defense committee (Ariège Couserans hospital center) are the main instigators.
Friday, June 9, 2023, it was at the initiative of the town hall of Engomer, a small town of around 300 inhabitants, that the members of the committee organized a meeting with the locals. The objective was to inform them about “the reality of the hospital situation” and to mobilize the population so that the Couseran hospital “keeps all of its activities”.
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Nurse at Chac and treasurer of the association, Sabine Miot began the evening by making a cold statement on the care offered by the hospital, evoking among other things “a recurring lack of psychiatrists”, “maternity [qui] has closed several times this year”, “the surgery which recently had to close five beds for lack of nurses”, or the absence of a permanent general manager.
Indeed, Marie Dunyach, director of Chiva, has been acting as director for several months. According to Sabine Miot, “this poses a problem for recruitment”.
“It’s up to us to wake up the elected officials”
The recent application of the Rist law, which has capped the amount of care of an interim doctor in public hospitals since April 3, would also have weakened the psychiatry service: “This law, we can be pleased with it. But unfortunately, a lot of temporary psychiatrists have left. People should be followed and are totally idle.”
Listening to these comments, the audience was agitated. Composed mostly of veterans, the thirty or so participants showed commitment, nevertheless demanding proposed solutions from the defense committee.
“It is not enough to tell people what is wrong, action must follow!” exclaimed a local. A neighbor continued: “I think it’s up to us to wake up the elected officials in our municipalities, it’s important”. The question of the investment of the various elected officials of the territory actually occupied the debates for long minutes.
Demonstration in Saint-Girons on June 27
The president of the defense committee, Frédéric Bostyn, continued in any case in the same direction, expressing his desire to “challenging the state services and the supervisory services such as the ARS (regional health agency)”: ” We are not going to let the situation rot for long. We are going to have to collectively, residents and elected officials, roll up our sleeves. Normally, we all have equal access to care. This has to happen. ”
To make themselves heard and show their “willingness to see the supply of care in Couserans maintained” in the face of a “severely degraded” situation, the defense committee and the representatives of the staff of the hospital center have therefore launched a call for demonstration. . The meeting is given in the parking lot of the aquatic center of Saint-Girons, on Tuesday June 27, from 5 p.m.