"I never thought we could get there ... Overnight, we found ourselves separated from patients that we sometimes followed for 10 years! And we find in the obituaries of the local press that some have died. Which means they were in services where they didn't know anyone… two days before Christmas. If it's not abuse, I don't know what it is. "
For 12 years, Agathe (the first name has been changed) has worked as a nurse, specialized in the treatment of cancer, at the Pasteur hospital in Cherbourg (Manche). She was the one who took down the Christmas decorations, destroyed by the unprecedented decision of the management to close her oncology department for at least 15 days ... during the holiday season!
In an already heavy context of restructuring, "there is a shortage of staff in all the services," said Sylvie Meriel, secretary of the Labor Force at the hospital. Result, according to the trade unionist: "The management had to make a quick calculation by saying that it was enough just to close the oncology to recover fifteen staff and fill the holes everywhere".
A patient transferred 120 km
“Except that,” continues Agathe, the nurse, “our patients find themselves dispatched to departments where the staff are not trained in this very specific care, notably chemotherapy. Imagine that some of them are at the end of their life and we wander them on stretchers at random from the places that become available. It's a shame ! One of them was even taken 20 km from here, in a department that had absolutely nothing to do with his cancer. They then transferred him to Caen (Calvados), this time 120 km away, where he died two hours later. Far from the practitioners who followed him daily… ”
It is this human dimension, apparently underestimated, which causes misunderstanding. "Can we agree to say to families in such suffering: well, we are going to move your husband or your dad ... because we close the service for Christmas? These patients that we followed every day, we do not even know in which departments they were moved ”, protests Louise (the first name has been changed), also a nurse in the department. A feeling clearly shared by the inhabitants of the city.
The nurses warned the day before
“It's a real scandal. When we see the public money that is spent, we are not screwed up to offer a decent welcome to patients who suffer from such serious illnesses. And the poor nurses who find themselves dropped like kleenex. It's unbearable ! “, Comments Hervé, 55, years old.
Because beyond the bottom of the case, there is the form. “I have been working here for 12 years and it was colleagues who warned us by phone that the service was closing the next day and that we were not going to see the patients again. Can you imagine what it also means humanly for us? Ask the nurses with one voice.
It remains to be seen whether the service will reopen on January 6 as agreed. " Nothing is less sure. We do not see how conditions could suddenly improve in a week… ”When questioned, management categorically refused to answer questions from the press and, more surprisingly, the concerns of patients and their caregivers.