2024-01-29 18:58:19
The thirty-two French university hospital centers (CHU) have reached a cumulative deficit of 1.2 billion euros at the end of 2023, or three times more than in 2022, alerted the representative bodies of directors, deans and doctors on Monday January 29, demanding “emergency measures”.
These latest figures show to what extent “the deterioration was profound and rapid”after the deficit of 402 million euros at the end of 2022, write in a press release the presidents of the conferences of general directors of CHU, deans of medical faculties and presidents of establishment medical commissions. “The self-financing capacity of CHUs, and therefore investment, has fallen by 86%”, they continue. These difficulties are “perhaps the most serious since the creation of university hospitals in 1958”.
Degradation “is linked to several external factors”, including an explosion in expenses due to inflation (with a remaining liability for CHUs of 585 million euros in 2023), a lack of funding for Ségur de la santé measures and a drop in revenue due to closures of beds after the Covid-19 epidemic, explain the presidents. This numbers “weigh heavily on hopes for improvement”recently observed in terms of the attractiveness of careers and the loyalty of caregivers, they believe.
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“Still significant turnover among nurses”
The university hospitals felt “a slight improvement in terms of absenteeism”despite a “still high turnover among nurses”. Even if beds have been able to be reopened in recent months, several sectors are in great difficulty, such as geriatrics, pediatrics or psychiatry, details Rémi Salomon, who represents the doctors, in the press release.
Furthermore, the university hospitals are “charged with a triple mission” care, training and research, requiring “healthy and solid finances”, the presidents still observe. The current situation will, according to them, lead to “an extension of supplier payment terms and a profound weakening of Ségur investment operations, at a time when recourse to borrowing is more difficult and more costly”. “In the short term, there is still time to avoid the worst”they plead.
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Mayors asked to speak with Gabriel Attal
They call on the public authorities to “compensate for inflation” high in 2023 and “return to public hospitals” the portion of the national target for Medicare spending reserved for hospitals, but which has not actually been consumed. An amount they estimate at 800 million euros. They finally demand a “long-term financing strategy”.
In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, numerous mayors of large cities including Anne Hidalgo (Paris), Grégory Doucet (Lyon), Pierre Hurmic (Bordeaux) and Martine Aubry (Lille), who are also presidents of the supervisory boards of the university hospitals in their municipalities, requested on Monday a ” appointment “ to can “present proposals” in government.
Public hospitals, all establishments combined – from university hospitals to small local hospitals – are asking the government for 1.8 billion euros in additional funding for 2023, including 1.1 billion for inflation, according to figures released Monday by the French Hospital Federation.
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