How, as medical deserts worsen, can we encourage more private doctors to participate in on-call care, evenings, weekends and public holidays? How to regain this “medical time” that is lacking to receive patients, without being able to count, in any case not before 2030-2035 and the expected effects of the numerus clausus reform at university, on more practitioners?
In an interview given to several titles in the regional press, Saturday April 6, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, clarified some of the avenues already outlined in his general policy speech on January 30. By quantifying the government objectives: it is the equivalent of 15 to 20 million medical appointments each year that the executive hopes to recover.
No restrictive measures at this stage: so that “every French person has a doctor on call less than thirty minutes from home” outside of daytime hours, Mr. Attal plays the incentive card, while ensuring that he will not hesitate, if that is not enough, to reintroduce the childcare obligation removed in 2003. “red rag” for liberal doctors. “We are banking on territorial solidarity, by offering a bonus to doctors who agree to go on duty a little further than their usual perimeter or two shifts rather than one every six months”we specify to the Prime Minister’s office, without saying more about the modalities or the level of this “bonuses”.
On this sensitive subject, the figures are known: 95% of the territory is today covered by permanent care, according to data from the order of doctors. “Today, 5% of the territory is not covered, and [même] where it is, the situation deteriorates, we argue at Matignon, suggesting that the number of professionals involved is insufficient. These are moments [après 18 heures] where we forego care or we go to the emergency room, which [y] leads to embolism. »
Negotiations
Another government lever: the extension of permanent care to other health professionals, nurses, midwives and dentists. “Nurses will thus be able to provide an initial response so that doctors can concentrate on essential cases”says those around Mr. Attal.
These announcements come as private doctors are engaged in the final stretch of conventional negotiations with Health Insurance to redefine, for the next five years, their conditions of practice and remuneration. Negotiations which failed in 2023, and which remain complicated: they were suspended on April 4, and four of the six unions representing the sector called to join private clinics in a strike call, starting on June 3.
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