Why are the analytical laboratories on strike until Wednesday?

For now, it’s just a three-day strike, but it could last longer. The vast majority of the 4,200 analysis laboratories present on French territory lower the curtain from today until Wednesday. In question, article 27 of the social security financing bill in 2023 by which the State asks them to return 250 million euros per year. This is compensation for the significant turnover registered since the start of the coronavirus pandemic thanks to the numerous antigenic and PCR tests carried out.

A problem in the form rather than the bottom.

If they do not oppose this contribution on principle, the medical biology laboratories denounce the methods since the State wants them to make these savings via a reduction in the rates of their acts. “The government wants to recover these 250 million euros by definitively lowering the price of our acts, confirms François Blanchecotte, president of the union of biologists. We want to return it to the Covid activity which is an exceptional activity.

Because that is the other point of friction: the discount would apply to all acts, urine tests, hormone assessments and blood tests. “This will have consequences for the laboratories that are in the so-called medical deserts and in which today we have few or no prescribers,” the unionist explained this weekend to our colleagues at Franceinfo.

Waiting for government action

If the laboratories still treat urgent cases, they do not admit the other appointments that are cancelled, and the patients are redirected to the laboratories of the public hospitals. “At the moment it has been gone for three days, but it will be renewable depending on the progress we have or the negotiations,” said François Blanchecotte, still on Franceinfo.

While the Ministry of Health calls to resume negotiations, denouncing an “unacceptable” situation, biologists await a gesture from the government after registering a small victory with the Senate. The Upper House of Parliament voted last week an amendment to the PLFSS in order to transform this permanent reduction into an exceptional contribution of 250 million euros for the 2023 financial year.