In front of the Saint-Ouen immediate care medical center (Seine-Saint-Denis), mask under her chin, a young doctor takes a cigarette break. “Today is shit, she breathes, expelling her smoke. It is 3:30 p.m. and I have already seen thirty-five patients. We don’t stop. » On this first day of December and the strike of liberal doctors, the pace at the center is more sustained than usual. But the professional, who preferred to remain anonymous, still supports the movement. “You shouldn’t believe that all the doctors go to play golf in a helicopter. The reality on the ground is much closer to this type of day”she lets go before returning to her consultations.
Thousands of liberal doctors and biologists closed their practices and laboratories on Thursday 1er and Friday, December 2, some to protest against the lack of recognition and demand price increases, others to protest against the levy brought, through the budget of the “Secu”, to their benefits. All the unions of liberal doctors, in the midst of conventional negotiations with Medicare, support the movement, with nuances in their positioning; a first since 2015.
With, for main demand, the doubling of the amount of the consultation – from 25 euros to 50 euros -, the young collective Doctors for tomorrow, with 15,000 members on Facebook, provided the impetus. Thursday evening, more than 10,000 closed practices were mentioned in its ranks – for 110,000 liberal practitioners. “A minimal number because many doctors answered only once for their entire practice”, notes Céline Bretelle, spokesperson for the collective. The Generalists-CSMF union reported that more than 80% of practices were closed. The French Union for Free Medicine (UFML), by 75%, with a strong participation in Toulouse, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Lyon… “Doctors do not have the culture of mobilization, recalls Jérôme Marty, of the UFML. Many told us that they had never gone on strike in their lives. It is a decision as symbolic as it is difficult. »
“Patients support us”
Signs, whistles, slogans: anger was heard on Thursday in at least twenty cities. A thousand white coats were gathered in Paris, in front of the Ministry of Health, 450 in Nantes, 200 in Toulouse, as many in Rennes or Marseille. In Corsica, a third of the 300 liberal doctors had declared themselves strikers. Figures, not confirmed by the Ministry of Health, at “take a step back”reacted Thomas Fatôme, the director general of Medicare, who is awaiting reimbursement data for “measuring the reality of movement”.
You have 66.17% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.