The National Assembly approved on the night of Wednesday to Thursday the opening of “direct access” of patients to advanced practice nurses (IPA), one of the measures of a bill on access to care strongly criticized by doctors.
Article 1 of this text, voted on first reading by the deputies with 62 votes against 3, also provides for the possibility that these nurses carry out certain prescriptions.
But the deployment of these “expert nurses” remains limited, in particular due to insufficient numbers of patients referred to them by physicians and unattractive remuneration. The article adopted on Wednesday aims to improve this status by giving patients the possibility of going directly to these paramedics without going through a doctor upstream, but within the framework of a “coordinated exercise” with the latter.
The deputies also approved an amendment from the LFI group, supported by the Government, which provides that the decree that determines the terms of a “primo-recipe” by these APIs must be taken by the Council of State after consulting the High Authority Sanitary.
Doctors concerned about the text
The bill of the Renaissance deputy Stéphanie Rist, whose examination must continue on Thursday, also provides for the establishment of “direct access” to physiotherapists and speech therapists.
Socialists and communists announced that they would abstain in the general vote on the text, considered too unambitious to fight against medical desertification. The ecologists announced a favorable vote on their side, despite reservations.
“We condition our final vote on the attention you give to our proposals,” LFI deputy Farida Amrani said during the general discussion.
The LR group “will be constructive”, indicated the deputy Justine Gruet, warning, however, that a final positive vote on the text would be conditional on the elimination of the article on IPAs.
Doctors’ organizations are alarmed by certain measures in the text, which they believe circumvent the prerogatives of liberal doctors.
Source: BFM TV
