About to break with the Health Insurance and the government, the liberal doctors are called to stop working on Tuesday and demonstrate in Paris, to demand price increases and to oppose a bill being examined in the Senate.
The unions did everything possible: closed cabinets, a strike by SOS Médecins and a demonstration between the ministry and the Senate.
A series of actions that says a lot about the state of relations, above all with Health Insurance. With two weeks to go before the end of crucial negotiations for the profession, failure has never seemed so likely. After three months without revealing himself, the proposal for an increase of just 1.50 euros in the basic consultation, from 25 to 26.50 euros, was seen as “a provocation.”
“We will go further next week”
Far, far from the 50 euros demanded by the “Doctors of Tomorrow” collective, at the origin of previous cabinet closures at the beginning of December and during the Holidays, with the support of protesting unions (UFML, FMF). Even large organizations (MG France, CSMF), whose signature will be essential, do not expect less than 30 euros.
Also demanding “the essential improvement of home visits”, SOS Médecins joined the mobilization, calling on its members to stop work for 24 hours starting Tuesday morning.
Will this sling move the lines? “We will go further next week”, already promises the director of Health Insurance, Thomas Fatôme, in an interview with Quotidien du Médecin.
But it will not be without compensation. A “territorial commitment” is requested, so that doctors treat more patients and provide more shifts on call at night and on weekends.
The Minister of Health, François Braun, does not give in: “My objective is to satisfy the health needs of the population,” he affirms, saying that he hears “the anger” of the doctors, “but also that of the French who cannot find a doctor”.
National demonstration in Paris
Precisely because the supply does not meet the demand, Parliament is considering opening “direct access” to certain paramedics: physiotherapists, speech therapists and advanced practice nurses.
A bill, supported if not inspired by the executive, has thus passed to the Assembly stage and will be debated on Tuesday afternoon in the Senate, after a step in committee that did not distort its content. Concerned about a possible approval of the text, the unions will play at the same time in the streets of the capital, between the Vauban square, next to the ministry, and the Panthéon square, very close to the Senate.
The organizers are giving themselves the means to change the balance of power. Thus, the CSMF warned that “buses leave from all over France: Laval, Strasbourg, Metz, Châteauroux, Vierzon, Orléans, Lille, Arras…”
Source: BFM TV
