Louis-Constant Fleming Hospital
MARIGOT--Regional health agency ARS has installed an interim management team at the troubled Louis-Constant Fleming Hospital to temporarily replace Director Marie-Antoinette Lampis who is currently absent.
The new director is Anne Calais, an assistant director from the Martinique Hospital who accepted the post from July 17 and is accompanied by three assistant directors.
Calais told Le Pélican newspaper that this interim management team will be in place for three months until Lampis returns. According to Calais, a permanent director will be recruited if Lampis does not wish to continue in the role as director.
The three other assistant directors are Finance Director Slimane Bousekhane, Director of Economic Services and General Affairs Nathalie Périssé, and Human Resources Director Valérie Héas. Calais was quoted as saying her mission is to organise with the hospital community “a participative and dynamic management” to carry out the essential roles of the hospital.
Among the various crises affecting the hospital over the past few months, and since several employees lost their jobs for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic, there has been a contentious relationship between Lampis and the hospital unions.
Secretary of Confédération Générale du Travailleurs de Guadeloupe and Fédération de la Santé et de L’Action Sociale (FSAS-CGTG) Marceline Dessout, who has been the face of many strike actions at the hospital, said she was “satisfied” with the arrival of a new management team and that “it was something that she had been expecting.”
“Over the last few years the situation has worsened at the hospital,” Dessout said. “We could not work correctly any more under these conditions. Many employees did not want to work here any more. The hospital has serious issues.”
Dessout said she has met with Anne Calais and agreed that the unions will meet with management once a month to discuss employee-related issues and other unresolved issues.
“This is an encouraging step forward, but we will remain vigilant,” she said.
