“
The overwork of the pandemic was a godsend for me
”.
Souleymane *, a Beninese doctor, arrived in France in the light of the first wave of Covid-19.
As a student "
acting as interns
" (FFI, in medical jargon), he joined one of the largest emergency services in Yvelines.
A rather harsh start to the experience: very early on contaminated by the virus, then confined in a 9m2 cell in the boarding house, far from his family, he took refuge in work.
Making yourself useful, giving all your energy, "
that's what kept me going
," he tells
Le Figaro.
Even if, above all, it was for the money that I was doing it
”.
To discover
Deconfinement: what will change this Wednesday for the French
Because, in his service of twenty practitioners, three quarters of whom are FFI, Souleymane, 34, 8 years of general medicine and 4 years of specialty, is paid the equivalent of a first year intern.
Or 16,892 euros gross per year.
“
Living in the Paris region with such a salary is very complicated.
So as soon as an opportunity is offered to me to earn more, I accept it,
”says the Beninese.
"As long as I stand, I continue"
At the heart of the crisis, faced with the crying need for manpower in emergency services and resuscitation, foreign doctors did not hesitate. "
Few of the interns do more than five calls per month
", says Adama *, FFI in a resuscitation service in Seine-Saint-Denis. “
It’s too much for them, and they don’t have the same financial pressure as we do. So they give us the rest
”. In hospitals overwhelmed by the virus, a real barter system has been set up around 24-hour guards, paid € 125 net on weekdays, double on Sundays. "
It is the equivalent of 65,000 CFA francs,"
calculates the West African doctor.
It doesn't seem like that, but at the end of the month,That makes all the difference !
".
Especially since Adama does not have the chance of Souleymane.
In his hospital, housing is not provided, and more than half of his anesthesiologist-resuscitator pay goes into rent.
“
To be able to live and send money to my family back home, I have to work hard,
” explains the practitioner from Burkina Faso.
Last spring, Adama thus accumulated up to four guards in eight days, even chaining, on occasion, 48 successive hours, to the detriment of the compulsory compulsory rest.
“
At night, I had headaches, I was bleeding from the nose.
But we had to hold on.
I said to myself: as long as I am standing, I will continue,
”he recalls.
Read also: Olivier Véran upgrades the careers of caregivers
Ditto for Souleymane, who grappled all the guards abandoned by his colleagues, and did not stop there.
"
I wrote to other hospitals in the region, I registered on the voluntary reinforcement platform of the Ministry of Health
."
Every week it was 60, 70, up to 80 hours of work.
"
I would have liked to do more, but at times, my body told me no,
" he confided to
Le Figaro
.
"Where no one wants to be"
For some 3,300 foreigners among the 30,000 interns in France, this overwork was not always chosen. Because if the interns can choose their assignment, their foreign colleagues fill in the gaps. "
They are where no one wants to be,
" sums up Christophe Prudhommes, spokesperson for the Association of Emergency Physicians of France. Samantha *, a Syrian who came to discover the French emergency system in Hauts-de-France, paid the price. "
The doctors systematically passed the patients on to me, saying: you, you are young, you risk less
", she recalls with a slight bitterness. "
At no time were we asked for our opinion, of course.
We lacked staff to take charge of the positive cases, so we were put there, that's all,
”explains the resuscitator.
One of her FFI colleagues, who came as part of a Specialized Medical Training Diploma (DFMS), had to experiment with different sectors to complete her specialization course: anesthesia, pediatrics, maternity.
But she did 100% Covid.
No choice.
“
Professionally, this period in France was wasted time for her,
” laments Samantha, according to whom many FFIs have been “
sacrificed
”.
To read also: Christophe Prudhomme: "It is the gravediggers of the hospital who are today sounding the alarm"
However, to defend themselves, these interns of circumstance have only the resourcefulness. Neither workers in the same way as associated practitioners (or “
padhue
”) nor entirely internal, no union or association represents them. "
Nothing is done to protect them, they are in total freewheeling
, denounces Gaëtan Casanova, president of ISNI.
Theoretically, we could defend them too, but we already have so much to do with our own interns
”.
In this context, the medical hierarchy proved, for the most part, to be a real support for foreign doctors. “
I was lucky to have a very attentive head of department. She called me regularly, gave me a lot of moral support,
says Adama
. But she had no alternative but to let me take these guards, she needed arms! All she could do was ask for an increase from the administration for me, which was refused
”. For his part, Doctor Dubost, head of the medico-surgical intensive care unit at the Pontoise hospital, attests: whatever the origin of the diploma, the interns in his department enjoy the same consideration. "
Whatthey are paid less is a deep injustice, nothing justifies it
», Considers the practitioner.
As for the guards, however, it is the interns who "
work out among themselves,
" he says.
"
As long as the hours are provided, we leave them complete freedom for the schedules
".
No hourly maximum, therefore.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the Ministry of Health has not yet responded to our requests.
The ARS Île-de-France, for its part, simply did not wish to comment on the subject.
Kingpin of Covid services
The heads of departments contacted by
Le Figaro
are unanimous: the FFIs have shown themselves, in recent months, to be a foolproof investment. "
We were very happy to have them
," testifies Mathias Wargon, emergency physician in Seine-Saint-Denis.
They work a lot, take guards hard, sometimes even without being paid
”. Would it be saying too much that they were the linchpin of the Covid teams? "
Fortunately they were there
", testifies Lara *, intern at Melun, who lived the crisis alongside the FFI. "
Without them, it's very simple, half of the services would close
“, Says Dr. Jean-Louis Dubost in turn.
In its service, two FFIs are constantly in support of the medical team, which maintained around 30 beds throughout the crisis period.
"
And I would have taken more if the administrative constraints had not blocked me
".
Read also: Resuscitation nurse, a profession without diploma training that you learn on the job
Recently, while the resuscitation services in Île-de-France are facing a worrying shortage of interns in the intensive care units in the light of the summer, several department heads have declared that they are counting on the efficiency of doctors. strangers to fill in the gaps. "
To pass the course, we hired internal equivalents outside the European Union (..) a little more
" than in normal times, declared at the beginning of May Jean-Michel Constantin, head of the anesthesia-intensive care unit at the hospital of the Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris. The same goes for the Melun hospital, where, since last winter, two additional FFIs have already reinforced the emergency and resuscitation teams in the Seine-et-Marne hospital center. “
Foreigners are generally highly motivated doctors,who do not balk at the task
», Explains Doctor Mehran Monchi, head of the intensive care unit, who still has two unfilled places to manage his 32«
sheave
»
beds
.
“
In France, only 74 medical resuscitators are trained each year.
Many of us asked to double this figure,
”said Christophe Prudhomme, spokesperson for the Association of Emergency Physicians of France.
But while waiting for this increase, “
the IFFs remain the
adjustment variable for hospitals.
And it has been going on for 30 years
, ”points out the emergency physician.