The department heads of the CHPF, along with the president of the medical commission, Dr. Tony Tekuataoa, and its vice-president, submitted their administrative resignations this Thursday, on the tenth day of the public health strike. Shortly after, practitioners’ unions were heard at Tarahoi for an extended period, where they were “reassured” by the groups and the President of the Assembly. For Patrick Galenon of CSTP-FO, they could even lift their movement after consulting the strikers on Friday. On the Fissap side, a protocol to end the conflict was signed late Thursday evening. The union thus did not go on strike Friday morning as it had announced.
[Update: signing of a protocol to end the conflict at Fissap]
This Thursday, all CHPF department heads resigned from their administrative functions, announced CSTP-FO and A Ti’a i mua, who lead the ten-day strike at Taaone. Twenty-three department heads, as well as the president and the vice-president of the Medical Establishment Committee (CME), the representative body of the hospital medical community, thereby submitted their resignations en masse. The move echoes the situation in May 2024, when 13 of the 26 doctors had submitted their resignations to the Health Minister to denounce staffing tensions at the hospital.
“We did this in 2024 to sound the alarm. The resignations were refused. The situation has worsened,” recalls Dr. Tony Tekuataoa, a member of the Public Practitioners’ Union of French Polynesia and president of the CME. “Are we the ones who should bear the administrative responsibility for a system that is collapsing? No. Besides our professional lives with turnover, the changing teams, the training we must undertake… it doesn’t make sense, we are exhausted.”
A “very positive” meeting with Assembly representatives
The head of the emergency department and the other representatives of hospital practitioners, but also a few nurses and public health doctors, were welcomed this Thursday afternoon in Tarahoi by the president and the Assembly’s group leaders. After three hours of discussions, they left satisfied with the meeting, which they described as “very positive.” “It’s a relief to be heard, listened to, and understood,” emphasized Dr. Tony Tekuataoa.
“We have confidence in our elected representatives to ensure that the health system does not collapse. Because we are unfortunately at the stage where our doctors want to resign,” reacted Patrick Galenon, secretary-general of CSTP-FO. “Already, in normal times, it is difficult, but now, with the strike, there is a lot of lost opportunity and we realize the responsibility we bear. The sooner we end the strike, the better we will be. And I am sure that the people’s representatives have heard us and reassured us.”
While discussions with the State are at a standstill, the hospital practitioners’ unions have therefore chosen to turn to the Assembly to try to be heard. “Because it is the people’s elected representatives who vote the budget. The State tells us there is no budget. But the elected representatives told us they will support us,” rejoices Patrick Galenon, who adds that the strike could even be lifted following these promises, but not without first consulting the base of strikers on Friday morning.
Strike avoided with Fissap
On the side of the Federation of Interprofessional Health Services in Polynesia (Fissap), which had mobilized its members at the hospital at noon on Thursday to strike Friday morning, the movement ultimately fizzled. Mireille Duval’s union met with the State on Thursday evening to present several counter-proposals to the announcements made the day before. Among these was the Va’a Ora monthly bonus of 18,000 francs per month, proposed to all agents. The bonus would also benefit hospital practitioners, while they were also offered a revaluation of on-call duties and additional working time, estimated at 116,000 net francs, which they had refused on Monday evening.
Fissap members denounced an “inequality of treatment.” “We are asked to take a train without rails while next to us, our PH colleagues will take the rocket,” insisted Mireille Duval, the union’s secretary-general, who notably requested that the State review the Va’a Ora bonus amount upward.The two sides ultimately reached an agreement on Thursday evening. A conflict-end protocol was signed with the vice-president, the Minister of Public Service, the Minister of the Economy, the director of the CHPF, and the director of public health. The State will now “propose a meeting widened to all concerned trade unions,” he said in a statement. The consultation will “address access to care across the five archipelagos and the patients’ pathways,” but also on “the needs of the teams, their working conditions and the sustainability of funding.” The government also pledged to finalize work on revising employment frameworks, profession by profession, by June 30, 2027, “for adoption before the end of the next year.”
