Maternity: Carhaix returns to the fight [Vidéo] – Brittany

“Carhaix, Carhaix Resistance…” The slogan resounded loud and clear this Saturday in the streets of the capital of Poher. Like an air of deja vu… Despite the weather, some 5,000 people gathered at 11 a.m. in front of the hospital to defend maternity, while the Ville report and the Rist law pose new threats to the service. In the ranks of the demonstrators, families, young people, the elderly who feel just as concerned, as well as many elected officials from all of Central West Brittany.

Among those taking part in this Saturday’s mobilization, there is no doubt that many will keep in mind the fight of 2008. That year, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to save the Carhaix maternity hospital, but also the operating theater of the hospital. As in the heyday of 2008, the whole city seems to have come to a standstill and many shopkeepers have lowered the curtain. No doubt Carhaix has once again entered “in Resistance”.

At the podium, anger transpires in the words spoken. Elected officials, union representatives, spokespersons for the collective of pregnant women and the vigilance committee, all castigate the “breakage of public services” and ask the CHRU of Brest to commit “to put the necessary means” to ensure the sustainability of all the services of the carhaisien site, in particular the maternity ward. All defend the right of women in Central West Brittany to give birth “in the country”, insisting that proximity is a guarantee of equal access to care. All, finally, showed their determination to remain mobilized. “We will return to block Quimper every day if necessary to obtain the final maintenance”, warns Matthieu Guillemot, member of the vigilance committee.

Like an echo of these words, the catapult, symbol of the victorious battle of 2008, then led the procession of demonstrators to Carhaix station.

In Landerneau, there were 450

In Landerneau, with some 450 people, the mobilization was much more modest than in Carhaix. But, there too, it was a question of defending motherhood. A maternity ward in need of anaesthesiologists. One of them has just retired and the hospital is struggling to recruit a new incumbent. Added to this is the imminent application of the Rist law which aims to cap the remuneration of temporary workers, including anesthesiologists, at the risk of diverting them from the public hospital. Thus, at the present time, the schedule of anesthesia guards for the month of April at the Landerneau maternity ward is incomplete. However, without an anesthesiologist, there is no childbirth. The specter of a closure, even temporary, therefore still hangs. Thus, according to Gaëlle Yannic of the CFDT, no new element today is likely “to remove the doubt on the closure from April 3 of activities related to anesthesia”.