Yasmina Kattou and Laurent Imbert, edited by Ophélie Artaud
modified to
1:45 p.m., December 28, 2022
The Hospital mistreated this winter: between the triple epidemic of influenza, bronchiolitis and Covid which weighs on the emergency services, the school holidays which deprive caregivers of part of the workforce, there is also, since the start of the week, a strike movement among liberal doctors, which forces patients to be redirected to the hospital. This Wednesday morning, the Minister of Health, François Braun, was traveling to the hospital in Annecy, in Haute-Savoie. He criticizes the calendar chosen for this social movement.
A strike “particularly unwelcome in this period of extreme difficulty for the health system”
“I have already had the opportunity to comment on this strike which I find particularly inappropriate in this period of extreme difficulty for the health system. Of course, I do not at all question the right to strike of doctors, but it is really the very bad period. I said it, I repeat it and I thank all those who are on the bridge. I brought together yesterday all the personnel concerned, whether they are the hospital unions, the liberal unions and I was able, once again, to thank everyone for their mobilization during this difficult period”, underlined the Minister of Health.
“It is a good thing, it seems to me, to strike. We have institutions that allow us to discuss, to deal with problems. Let us use these institutions. My door has always remained open and it will remain so to settle the problems. But we don’t go on strike before starting to discuss. In any case, that seems a bit curious to me”, concluded François Braun.
“The responsibility is no longer in our camp”, answer the strikers
The minister has therefore stepped up to the plate and seems to be positioning himself alongside the hospital world. An exit from the minister to which the striking doctors reacted at the microphone of Europe 1. The general practitioners send the ball back to the Ministry of Health, which was warned of this strike, assures Mokhtaïra Alikada, doctor in Lyon and spokesperson for the collective “Doctor for tomorrow”, at the origin of this movement.
“We were responsible because in October 2022 we announced the strikes of December 1 and 2 and from December 26 to January 1. There were four negotiation meetings with the National Health Insurance Fund and there was no nothing happened. After a while, the responsibility is no longer in our camp”, she underlines.
François Braun said he was open to dialogue this Wednesday morning. Words in the air, denounces Doctor Alikada. “On December 2, they passed the 2023 social security financing law in 49.3. It was the day we went on strike. And then we are told that we are not responsible. It is not understandable”, insists she.
And the anger of general practitioners is spread throughout the territory. According to the collective doctor for tomorrow, since Monday, depending on the region, 50 to 80% of private doctors’ offices have kept their doors closed.