The salary cap for interim doctors at the public hospital, which will come into force on April 3, will mean the closure of “hundreds of guard lines,” the union of emergency doctors Amuf said on Monday.
“Hundreds of guard lines will be closed”
The tension rises three weeks before the fateful date. “Hundreds of emergency lines will be closed in a few days,” warned the French Association of Emergency Physicians (Amuf) in a statement.
This union – chaired by Patrick Pelloux – “alerts about the law of supervision of the medical interim”, which according to him will translate into these “closures in defiance of the sick”.
As of April 3, public hospitals will no longer be able to pay a doctor more than 1,170 euros gross for 24-hour care, under penalty of legal action.
“Unacceptable deviations” in the interim
The government intends to apply a measure approved in January 2016, reinforced by a second law in April 2021, but suspended since then due to the Covid epidemic.
Its entry into force has the support of the French Hospital Federation (FHF), whose president Arnaud Robinet again denounced on Sunday in France Info the “unacceptable excesses” of the interim, which costs “1,500 million euros each year” to the public establishments.
“We couldn’t go on like this,” he added.
Staff requisitions?
Saying he is “aware of the difficulties” this may cause, he asks “that the prefects may requisition the staff when the time comes” if necessary.
But doubts remain. The anesthetists from the SNPHARE union, although in favor of the measure, thus believe that “putting the gun to the temples” of casual workers will not solve the problem “without increasing the attractiveness of hospital medicine careers.”
The same “concern” among the mayors of the Association of Small Towns of France (APVF), who “wish an end to mercenary activity” in their hospitals but already demand “detailed exemptions” to avoid the closure of services at the beginning of April.
Source: BFM TV
