Monday, the deputy Olivier Véran was propelled Minister of Solidarity and Health, after the surprise departure of Agnès Buzyn in the battle of the municipal in Paris. "It is the year of the elders", he proclaims during his visit to the Loire, recalling that a law is for them in preparation. Law on autonomy, plan for the hospital, on his desk the files pile up. But in the meantime, the doctor by training must face the worrying crisis of the coronavirus.
Should we fear new cases in France?
OLIVIER VÉRAN . Other cases are very likely. An epidemic? We are preparing for it. Today, there is only one patient left in France, hospitalized in Lyon. His state of health is not of concern. All the others, apart from an 80-year-old man who died, are out, healed and not contagious. I made the choice to quarantine all French returnees Friday from a red zone in China, that is to say where the risk of viral transmission is significant. They will be placed in confinement for fourteen days in a Calvados holiday center. At this stage, nothing indicates that one of them is infected. We remain on maximum alert.
What does it mean to "prepare"?
We are increasing the number of laboratories equipped with diagnostic tests to reach a capacity of several thousand analyzes per day and throughout the territory, against 400 today. We are also continuing to equip masks. Public health France works with French companies that manufacture them, in addition to orders already placed abroad. I gathered around sixty health decision makers on Tuesday because information sharing and feedback are essential.
So this seems very serious ...
Of course it is serious, and we put ourselves in a situation. If the epidemic reaches Europe, I want us to be fully operational. I am particularly attentive to the situation in Iran, in South Korea where the number of cases is increasing, or even in Japan, and closer to us in Italy, where a patient died without having been in China or in known contact with a another patient.
On France Inter Tuesday, you welcomed the responsiveness of China, adding that it would be impossible to "achieve this in a country in which social networks would be open". Censorship, an effective weapon against the coronavirus?
Certainly not, and I regret this lawsuit brought on a subject so serious in the period that we know. I made two observations. The first is that China has a reactive and quality health system. The second is that the Chinese do not have the same degree of freedom as we do. In no case do I plead today for large-scale containment measures in France. And I do not call for any form of restriction of freedoms.
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Immediately appointed, you announced an investigation into the ill-being of hospital workers. They replied that they did not need reports, but actions!
This survey, a first in France, will begin in a fortnight and I really believe in it. Caregivers were never given the opportunity to say: this is why I work at the hospital, these are my difficulties and my expectations . To accompany him, I will organize public debates in hospitals with broken discussions. But it will in no way delay the hospital's transformation measures.
What measures?
First, the recovery by the state of ten billion euros of hospital debt. At the end of March, I will share our proposals on the concrete organization and the use of this recovery which should give between 800 million and 1 billion euros per year additional to hospitals! I have no a priori or taboo on how to use these credits: HR measures, opening of beds, financing of innovative projects ... The establishments each have their specificity and specific needs. I also speed up the calendar. From the summer, everyone will know how much they can have. Debt recovery must be a reality for caregivers by improving their working conditions. I am a doctor, I know that situations are not acceptable.
Which ones?
Having a patient in a corridor for example. Or for lack of bed, having to hospitalize him in a service that does not concern him. Another thing should no longer happen: a facility manager telling his teams that the nurse on maternity leave or his colleague on sick leave will not be replaced because he cannot afford it. So, I am announcing it, I want to make the replacement of any foreseeable work stoppage greater than 48 hours systematic. I will take action within two months.
You seek to calm a situation for which some accuse you of being partly responsible. You were rapporteur for the social security budget where hospitals were asked to tighten their belts !
None of my interlocutors considers that the difficulties date from 2017! The damage was done in 2004, by the brutal introduction of activity pricing (T2A), of which I want us to reduce the share as soon as possible. The harm was done in 2008, when Nicolas Sarkozy took away those who care for legitimacy to decide how and with what means. It was done with a steady drop in hospital rates for ten years, which we stopped. There will be no further tariff cuts until 2022.
Your ministry includes Solidarities. What does this mean to you ?
I want to be the minister who fights against all forms of fragility because they generate exclusion. I intend to do it from the youngest to the oldest. I will introduce a great law on loss of autonomy before the summer.
Autonomy loss ? It's no longer called the Addiction Law?
I made disappear from the decree which fixes my attributions the term dependence. Words have meaning. The loss of autonomy describes an active and progressive mechanism, where dependence indicates that it is already too late. Autonomy is preserved. This is what we want to do. The elders have too often been the poor parents of society. The ambitious law will provide for the construction of nursing homes and the modernization of existing buildings, some of which have not been renovated in twenty-five years. There will be resolute action to reduce the rest borne by residents. I will also defend measures to ensure that the elderly are kept at home for as long as possible.
Home helpers, this is another overdue job…
They - because they are often women - are at the crossroads of fragility. They take care of those who need it most, but some of them are working poor. For a long time, we said to ourselves : it doesn't matter . We were not concerned with a low-paid feminized profession. Today, stop, it's unacceptable! So, without waiting for the law, I told home helpers this Thursday that I was unlocking 20 million euros for upgrading the sector.
You yourself have been a nursing assistant…
Yes, at night, in Ehpad, to pay for my studies. It is the hardest job, the kidney breaker, the lowest paid and the least socially recognized that I have exercised. I remember the nights when I had to take a nap in the car before I got back behind the wheel. I know how essential it is to have a sufficient and recognized number of caregivers to exercise this magnificent profession in good conditions and to be well treated with patients.
During your nomination, you said that you wanted to make environmental health your priority. How? 'Or' What ?
There are very strong and legitimate concerns in the population. I am thinking of those who were called "babies without arms", the fire at the Lubrizol factory in Rouen, pesticides ... We need to be better equipped to deal with the risks linked to environmental health. This must be territorialized, structured, and geared towards the French. Any problem somewhere? We should be able to go and do an investigation on the spot. Today, we are too organized by environment. Take Lubrizol. One day, we were informed about the quality of the water. The next day, air. However, we need a global and exhaustive assessment of all risks. No doubt we will have to invent a new prevention profession. It's the future. We will work there with Elisabeth Borne (Editor's note: the Minister for the Ecological Transition) .
Is it easy to replace a minister who left in the middle of a storm to fight the municipal elections?
I'm ready. Succeeding Agnès Buzyn is an honor. She has such a capacity for conviction that we want to move forward with her. I know the files, I participated in the development of 100% reimbursement of hearing aids and dental or the removal of the numerus clausus. Some methods will be different but I totally follow in the footsteps of my predecessor, to whom I wish the best of success in March, in Paris.
Emmanuel Macron wants ministers involved in the municipal campaign. Why didn't you introduce yourself to Grenoble, where you lived and worked as a neurologist?
I made the choice not to appear in Grenoble, long before I knew that I would be a minister. I was a member of parliament, a regional councilor and I was not comfortable with the idea of increasing the number of candidates. I fully support Emilie Chalas, LREM candidate in Grenoble.
The hot topic of pensions mobilizes less in the street but the opinion remains mainly against. How will you convince?
I was born in 1980 - after 1975, therefore - and I will therefore enter the universal system. My great regret is that it did not exist before. Because, like many French people, I did countless small jobs when I was 18. But now, they count for almost nothing in my retirement. This should take place at 67, far from 62 of the legal age or 64 of the equilibrium age. With the new system, every hour worked earns points. Nothing is lost for retirement contributions. I understand the anxiety of change. It happens against a background of strong feelings of social insecurity. But never have we had such a social, redistributive pension reform. It is fair and egalitarian.
On the day of your appointment, you, a former PS, joked that you will be in the same place in the Assembly but a little more to the left. What should we understand?
When I am not comfortable with something, I say it. But it turns out that I fully recognize myself in the majority En Marche. I recognize myself in getting out of precariousness through employment, in the fight against exclusion, in taking care of it. I want to bring my social sensitivity to it.
