Hospital staff, labor union in France lament country's 'disastrous' health care situation

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) – Hospital staff and a labor union in a southeastern France city deplored the country's disastrous health care situation after a 91-year-old patient died while waiting for a bed at the well-known hospital, according to media reports.

The elderly patient died last week after waiting three days for a bed at the CHU Grenoble hospital, according to emergency chief Marc Blancher, told broadcaster France Bleu on Wednesday that this was the third such case since December.

"It's inhuman... we're in a disastrous situation every day," he said.

Sara Fernandez, hospital secretary-general of the General Confederation of Labor, which has 690,000 members and is affiliated with the European Trade Union Confederation, said the staffs are ashamed and scared "because they cannot offer what they consider to be the minimum care."

Despite walkouts, protests, and letters to local authorities, hospital staff received no response to the persistent problems in health care.

France has seen a deep health care crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic, which has recently worsened due to staff burnout and medicine shortages.