Paid screenings, rallies… liberal nurses on the street this Saturday

The mobilization of liberal nurses, which began in the Rhône-Alpes region at the end of January, has already led to several dozen local demonstrations. This Saturday they will again take to the streets with filtered toll roads at the height of the winter holidays or during rallies to denounce the lack of updates and the lack of recognition of the complexity of their profession.

Those who were on the front line during the Covid crisis, who remain one of the cornerstones of the health system to relieve hospital structures and city doctors and who are sometimes one of the last links with sick and isolated people, feel forgotten. inhabitants of Segur de Santé.

Let’s start, in their opinion, with the lack of revaluation of nursing services since 2009 against the backdrop of galloping inflation. According to the Angry Liberal Nurses collective, nurses are paid on average between 6 and 9 euros gross per hour, which is significantly less than the minimum hourly gross wage of 11.65 euros. They are asking for at least a revaluation in line with inflation to prevent their purchasing power from plummeting.

Added to this are additional costs such as increased transportation costs. They are demanding a doubling of transport benefits, which currently amount to 2.50 euros. “There are treatments that we can no longer provide because we are almost at a loss,” the collective’s co-president Gaëlle Cannat, a nurse from Bouches-du-Rhône, explains to AFP. For rural nurses who have to travel long distances, “paying €7.25 gross per hour for procedure and travel is no longer financially acceptable.”

“Which profession would tolerate a loss of more than 20% of purchasing power? »

“Which profession would tolerate a loss of more than 20% of purchasing power? » Also questioning the nurses’ union, Convergence, which supports the movement. As for the cost of mileage, they believe that this request for an increase is justified, although it is today higher for physiotherapists or doctors, and “the price of fuel is the same for everyone,” they emphasize.

The movement also calls for people to retire at age 62 (up from 67 currently) and to “recognize the severity” of their work, which sometimes requires carrying heavy loads, extending work hours to see all patients, taking vacations that may be ripped off. until a replacement is found to ensure continuity of care. Added to this is the ever-growing documentation that needs to be simplified.

For some patients, a visit from a nurse is also an opportunity to get additional help with putting on compression stockings and making other dressings. The problem is that all these “little” practical actions are free, since they fall outside the scope of social security nomenclature. For their part, patients believe that these services are paid and therefore do not hesitate to seek these services.

According to the trade union collective Angry Nurses, the initiator of the ongoing mobilization since the end of January, there are “twenty collection points.” Towing operations will be organized with sometimes “deceleration seepage dams”, in particular on the toll roads in Toulouse and Nîmes, on the Aix-en-Provence bridge, on the square of Nantes, Saint-Nazaire or La Baule (Loire) train stations. -Atlantique) or in the center of Lille, mainly during midday or afternoon.

The mobilization that began in late January in the Rhône-Alpes region following a farmers’ movement has since led to several dozen local demonstrations. It is difficult for these liberals to “punch”, in part because of the consistency of care. But “this Saturday everything will change,” promises Gael Cannat.

Frédéric Valletout, Minister Delegate for Health and Prevention of France, contacted the team. The ball is now in his court.