The collective “Doctors for tomorrow”, supported by several unions (FMF, UFML, SML and Young Doctors), expects several thousand demonstrators in the streets of the capital this Thursday.
As a culmination of a disputed strike, a national demonstration: liberal doctors are called to take to the streets on Thursday in Paris to obtain a revaluation of the consultation and an improvement in their conditions of practice.
“We call on patients to join us: it is they who are concerned by the abandonment of city medicine by the State”, underlines the founder of “Doctors for tomorrow”, Christelle Audigier.
After a first strike in early December, this collective launched on Facebook (16,000 members) called for the closure of medical practices after Christmas, a movement extended until January 8. He says that 70% of general practitioners were on strike last week, Health Insurance estimating for its part the drop in activity at 10%.
The movement was sharply criticized by the government, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne deeming it “really not responsible” because it increased “tensions on the hospital” in times of winter epidemics.
They want better pay
The central demand of the collective remains the doubling of the basic consultation price (from 25 to 50 euros) to create a “shock of attractiveness” towards a city medicine in lack of arms, crushed by administrative tasks and which no longer appeals young people.
“Doctors for tomorrow” presented its own proposals to fight against medical deserts, advocating “ephemeral practices” in under-resourced areas and incentives for the installation of young practitioners.
The director of Health Insurance, Thomas Fatôme, assures that the general practitioners will be well upgraded within the framework of the conventional negotiation which must resume “from the beginning of next week” to be completed before the end of February.
But an amount of “50 euros would be relatively extravagant”, he says, noting that several of the main doctors’ unions, such as MG France, the CSMF and Avenir Spé, do not make this claim.
This is also the case for the young general practitioners of ReAGJIR. If it “shares the fed up of the profession in the face of the cruel lack of means in health and the deterioration of the situation”, this union considers that the doubling of the price of the consultation is “not judicious” in the moment “when many French people are already experiencing great financial difficulties and access to care”.
