“Foreign doctors are mainly investing in hospital specialties deserted by French doctors who prefer to practice privately”

Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée, delegate minister responsible for government coordination, will not lack thorny issues to articulate between the different portfolio managers within Michel Barnier’s government.

The appointment of Bruno Retailleau to the interior quickly gave wings to hard-line defenders on migration issues. In this area, interfaces with the Minister of Health will in particular generate attention, and even mobilization, of stakeholders.

Two files directly concern Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister of Health and Access to Care, and will serve as useful barometers on the effectiveness of “governmental coordination”. First, the future of state medical aid (AME), the object of all symbolic manipulations in the service of a martial discourse on the toughening of the reception of foreigners. A more subtle variation will undoubtedly be constructed in political discourse – and in practice – concerning the essential place occupied by doctors holding a diploma issued abroad.

“Moral, health and economic contradiction”

On the scarecrow of the AME, the removal of which would prevent diagnoses at an early stage – worsening the prognosis of pathologies – and would reinforce spontaneous recourse to costly and out of breath hospital emergencies, much has already been said by the associations as by professionals in the medico-social field. The formula of the French Hospital Federation summarizes the argument, evoking “a moral, health and economic contradiction”.

On overall medical demography, as on the territorial distribution of practitioners, today largely supported by foreign doctors, data from the National Council of the Order of Physicians provides eloquent information. The place of foreign doctors is crucial in the provision of care. At 1er January 2023, 234,028 doctors were active in France, including 48.8% women and 51.2% men. Those under 40 represent 28.5% of the workforce, those 60 and over 31.1%. The average age of doctors is 50.5 years. Doctors with foreign qualifications occupy an increasingly important place over time. While in 2010 they accounted for 7.1% of active doctors, they represented 12.5% ​​in 2023.

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The increase in the proportion of active doctors with foreign qualifications is particularly noticeable among specialists, whether medical or surgical. They represent 19.8% of active surgical specialist doctors and 16.9% of active medical specialist doctors (excluding general practitioners). Romania, Belgium and Italy are the three main countries for obtaining diplomas for practicing doctors with diplomas obtained within the European Union (EU), excluding France.

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