Will Emmanuel Macron’s “very concrete” announcements live up to the promised “re-foundation” of a “breathless” health system? The head of state is, however, eagerly awaited during his wishes to the doctors, this Friday in a hospital in Essonne.
“The President of the Republic will give a course to caregivers” to allow them to “find meaning in their profession” and facilitate “access to care” for the French, according to the Élysée. He will reveal “very specific measures, with precise and narrow review clauses to ensure their execution,” added the presidency, without detailing the content.
“Deliquescence”
A sign of the priority given to the crisis affecting the hospital but also the city’s medicine, it is the first time since he arrived at the Elysée in 2017 that Emmanuel Macron has dedicated a greeting ceremony specifically to the “health players, hospital and liberals.”
For the occasion, he went to the Sud Francilien Hospital Center (CHSF) on the outskirts of Paris. Accompanied by the Minister of Health, François Braun, he must visit pediatric emergencies, subjected as in other parts of France to extreme stress in recent months.
His announcements are eagerly awaited by the staff who constantly denounce the “failure” of the care offer, with overwhelmed emergencies and a resounding lack of caregivers, in the context of the triple winter epidemic of Covid-19, flu and bronchiolitis.
“Multiple Speeds”
In a rare joint press release, the order and the medical unions on Thursday, on the eve of “political decisions,” outlined their red line by stating “oppose a multi-speed drug” that would not respect its role as “driver.” . of the system.
Emmanuel Macron’s first term was marked, after the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, by the “Ségur de la santé”, with 12,000 million euros a year to better remunerate caregivers and 19,000 million in investments in hospital health, but Already in 2018, his “My Health 2022” plan had installed his philosophy, with the elimination of the “numerus clausus” that limited the number of medical students.
“It takes us about ten years to train a doctor”, so we will have to live with the current shortage for some time longer, the presidential delegation argues today to justify the need to “intensify these transformations”.
Various sources of discontent
During his spring re-election campaign, Emmanuel Macron had also made health one of the two “big projects” of his second five-year term, along with schools. He had recognized that it would be necessary to “go much further, faster and stronger”, in particular by strengthening prevention, “simplification of the hospital”, “access to emergency care” and the fight against medical deserts.
François Braun, when he was appointed in July, even spoke of a “breathless health system”. But despite some urgently decided measures and budget expansions in recent months, the crisis continues to worsen. And the sources of discontent multiply.
Liberal doctors demonstrated by the thousands this Thursday in Paris, the culmination of a strike that began the day after Christmas to demand the doubling of the consultation, from 25 to 50 euros.
However, eager to put out the social fires, especially as the mobilization against the impending pension reform approaches, the government has been firm towards these strikers. strike during the holidays, which increases the pressure on the hospital.
“In action”
Its health minister said Thursday “willing to increase this consultation” but in exchange for efforts to allow the French easier access to a doctor, and certainly not up to the 50 euros requested.
FO-Santé, the second union of public hospital services, called for an indefinite strike from January 10 to protest against the “inaction” of the government. While the liberal biologists threaten to close their laboratories as of Monday.
Will Emmanuel Macron’s speech put an end to these conflicts? This is obviously the intention of the Elysée. “We have been in almost permanent crisis management since 2020,” explained an adviser. The objective of the speech is “to get out of this crisis management”.
Source: BFM TV
