Laura Laplaud (comments collected by Yasmina Kattou) / Photo credits: Pixabay
From November 1, the price of the medical consultation increases. You will now have to pay 26.50 euros instead of 25 euros to have an appointment with your general practitioner. An increase of 1.50 euros which is far from sufficient for the ReAGJIR union.
On November 1st, some new things are coming to the daily lives of the French. Among them, the increase in medical consultations. You will now have to pay 26.50 euros instead of 25 euros to have an appointment with your general practitioner. An increase of 1.50 euros which also concerns specialist doctors.
“City medicine is today underfunded”
The price of the consultation has not been increased for several years but this increase is far from sufficient. “The observation is that community medicine is today chronically underfunded. This translates into an obligation to increase the rate of care, to care for more patients in a short period of time,” explains Raphaël Dachicourt, president of the ReAGJIR union (Autonomous Group of Young Installed and Replacement General Practitioners).
Some doctors are obliged to have a series of consultations to “run” their practice. “[On fait] 20-30 consultations per day, which leads to a deterioration in the quality of care. It is an obligation because in terms of current financing and current pricing, to be able to run the medical business, we are there,” he continues.
At the microphone of Europe 1, Raphaël Dachicourt assures that doctors would like to be able to take more time with patients but that they do not have the means. “We spend 15 minutes, 30 minutes with a patient, it’s paid in the same way. If today we want to make general medicine attractive, we must massively finance community medicine,” he concludes.