Second date. The inter-union of liberal doctors calls for a strike again on February 14, in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and made public in le figaro friday.
The practitioners, already mobilized at the end of December and beginning of January, ask in particular for “an additional financial endowment”, after the “suspension” in mid-January of their talks with Social Security.
• Concern about the possible return of the custody obligation
New compared to December, liberal doctors fear that on-call at night, weekends and on public holidays, which are currently voluntary, will once again become mandatory for liberal doctors and caregivers.
They believe that compulsory childcare risks exacerbating attractiveness problems and increasing, contrary to the intended objective, the difficulties of accessing care. This obligation was abolished at the beginning of the 2000s, after a mobilization of liberal doctors, but it has been demanded for several months by representatives of the Hospital Federation to avoid overcrowding in the emergency room.
• Request for budget extension
The unions ask Matignon for “an additional financial endowment” to avoid “a failure of the negotiations” underway with the Health Insurance.
This extension should allow, according to the doctors, “to achieve the objectives set by the Minister of Health.” “It is essential to return to the medicine of the city the means to face the challenges,” they believe.
At the end of December, doctors were already demanding a doubling of the basic consultation fee (from 25 to 50 euros) to create a “clash of attraction” towards the medicine of the city in need of weapons.
• Count Saturday morning as 24/7 care.
Liberal doctors ask that Saturday morning be counted as permanent care. Objective: to obtain better remuneration and to benefit from “two days off, like everyone else”, underlines MG France, the first union of general practitioners.
A perspective that the Minister of Health, François Braun, seemed to rule out, “without being sure that this is the best solution” to the difficulties of access to care.
• Rejection of a text on the “direct access” of patients to certain nurses
Doctors are concerned about a bill that plans to establish “direct access” for patients to certain nurses who would be authorized to write prescriptions, but also to physiotherapists and speech therapists.
Renaissance MP Stéphanie Rist’s bill is supposed to fight “medical deserts”.
A day of “closing medical practices” is scheduled for February 14, as well as a meeting in front of the Senate where the challenged bill will be examined in session.
Source: BFM TV
