At the beginning of December, the slogan of closing medical practices had already led to a drop in activity of around 30% among general practitioners, according to Health Insurance.
The liberal doctors are again called upon to close their practices since Monday morning and until January 2 to demand an increase in the consultation fee and an improvement in their working conditions, a movement which however promises to be less followed than that of early December. The authorities’ appeal to “sacred union” health professionals, in the hope of “relieve” hospitals overwhelmed by “triple epidemic” of Covid, bronchiolitis and flu, did not give up “Doctors for tomorrow”.
This young collective, created at the end of the summer, signed a coup on December 1 and 2: its slogan of closing medical practices led to a drop in activity of around 30% among GPs, according to Health Insurance. A new strike was then already announced between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The appeal has since been maintained, with the support of several unions (UFML, FMF, SML, Young Doctors).
Read alsoIn France, doctors ready to launch a hard strike
“This is the ultimate cry of alarm from liberal doctors in the face of the collapse of the health system as a whole”, said Noëlle Cariclet on Monday on franceinfo. Spokesperson for “Doctors for tomorrow», this psychiatrist from the Ile-de-France deplored that practitioners are “forced to close their offices to be heard”. Her colleague Christelle Audigier, a general practitioner from Lyon and founder of the collective, predicts, however, that the mobilization “will be a little less, but still substantial”while projecting towards a national demonstration planned in Paris on January 5th.
SEE ALSO – Health: the French worried about the hospital
A doubling of the base rate as a claim
The central demand remains the doubling of the basic consultation fee (from 25 to 50 euros) to create a “attractiveness shock” towards a city medicine glaringly short of manpower, crushed by administrative tasks and which no longer attracts young people. Doctors’ organizations are also concerned about their freedom of establishment, challenged by proposed medical desert laws, and fear that other caregivers may be allowed to prescribe, including advanced practice nurses (APNs). .
Read alsoThreat of strike: François Braun calls for the “responsibility” of general practitioners for the holidays
This strike also falls in the middle of negotiations with the Health Insurance, for an agreement for the next five years with the profession. Some take advantage of this to raise the stakes, such as the UFML which estimated in a press release on Monday that “the investment must be up to the level of the need”, i.e. “6 to 10 billion per year”. But the main unions (MG France, CSMF, Avenir Spé) consider that the discussions opened this fall have produced “advanced” and do not call to close the cabinets during the holidays. The Minister of Health, François Braun, welcomed their “responsibility”saw the “critical situation” hospital emergencies.
“It seems to me a very bad time not to respond to the healthcare needs of the population”argued the director general of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Île-de-France, Amélie Verdier, who like the other ARS will be able to requisition strikers to provide night and weekend guards.