“Each year in France, between ten and twenty interns in medicine put an end to their days,” says a statement from the InterSyndicale Nationale des Internes (ISNI). Three times more likely to die by suicide than French women and men of the same age, 23% to have had suicidal thoughts, and 3.8% to have tried to end their life, the figures put forward by the union are alarming .

Each year 1 intern in 3000 commits suicide, it is 3 times + than the population of mm age. Among medical students 66% anxiety, 25% suicidal thoughts@Doyen_Diot @PhilippeMorlat @olivierveran What do we do except cells and green numbers that don’t work?

– And it is said Doctor ????????????????? ‍⚕️⚕️ (@ecsdmed) February 23, 2021

On February 19, an intern called Tristan committed suicide. According to ISNI it is the fourth since the beginning of the year. “Some of his colleagues have suggested that there were elements relating to working conditions,” sighs Gaétan Casanova, president of the InterSyndicale Nationale des Internes.

But this is not the only explanation, the president explains that “elements of harassment” participated in pushing Tristan to the limit. And according to him, the intern is far from representing an isolated case: “It is a problem on which the ISNI returns regularly. “

To read also: “This confinement is a real ordeal” for the students

Lots of risk factors

Interns work 58 hours per week on average, and this can go up to 80 hours per week in the surgical department, for example, explains Gaétan Casanova. “The interns are used to suffering, to shutting it down. They have great resilience, and when they let go, they’ve been pushed to the limit. “

I’ve been so jaded the last few days then I take to Twitter to see that there has been another intern suicide. Frankly even if many say that after it’s better there are days when I wonder is it really worth continuing all this … pic.twitter.com/EhdbzlUO5P

– ???? Queen (@ queen270595) February 21, 2021

In addition, the president of ISNI is sorry for the abundance of testimonies of violence that he receives from interns. “I listened to an intern who is called a ‘slut’ by her boss, who gets stuck to the walls and yells at them, who has surgical equipment thrown in her face. Also a pregnant intern who is told ‘you are not here to make you express your milk, you are there to suffer, and if you suffer it is in silence’. We receive hundreds of messages from interns on the verge of suicide. “

“The system guarantees impunity”

According to the president of ISNI, interns have no recourse to report a malicious superior. “In university hospitals, the head of the university service has many roles. If he is malicious or violent, he is at the same time your specialty coordinator, your supervisor and your thesis director. It is a complete control over the professional future of the intern.

Gaétan Casanova concedes it, the dean can represent an appeal. “But the dean and the head of department have known each other for twenty or thirty years and are friends, especially in small towns. So we can’t go see the dean. Even if we talk to a union about it, even anonymously, we say to ourselves ‘he will end up guessing that it is me, he can prevent me from having a job and get revenge’. The system guarantees virtual impunity to these people. “

Leaked public hospital

The situation even creates a shortage of personnel at the public hospital according to the president of ISNI: “According to a study that we commissioned and which will appear in March, more than 64% of interns believe that they are not at all sufficiently informed. on employment opportunities in the private sector. Yet only 23% wish to remain in the public. This proves that most of them flee the public and the CHU, without knowing where they are going. They say ‘everything, rather than that’. “

For Gaétan Casanova, the direct managers are the deans and heads of departments. “I say to the deans’ You are arsonists who assassinate the public hospital, you are responsible for these tragedies”, he is indignant.

What solutions?

The procedures for removing a department head are complex. According to the president of ISNI. “They are indestructible,” he regrets. “Today, the only possibility is that an intern cracks, collects testimonies and fights like a dog to blow up the affair. It ends up getting so loud that they can’t hide it anymore. But one cannot base the system on heroic actions of this kind! “

This is the reason why ISNI “demands” ten emergency measures to prevent further tragedies. The union asks that the interns’ course no longer be validated by a single person. Thus, the heads of department would no longer be the sole interlocutors of the students. This measure would make it possible to limit power relations and free up the floor in the event of harassment.

In addition, ISNI calls for the immediate and systematic exclusion of people found guilty of harassment, the creation of listening cells for interns, as well as the establishment of a working time count.