Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne reprimanded this Tuesday morning on France info the strike movement initiated among general practitioners on December 26 and renewed by some of them. The head of government says that liberal practitioners are increasing pressure on the hospital by closing their practices.
“It’s really not responsible.” Elisabeth Borne said bluntly what she thought of the strike movement led by some of the liberal doctors, this Tuesday morning with franceinfo. According to the Prime Minister, the initiative – launched on December 26 and renewed Monday for a week – can only worsen the situation in already overwhelmed hospitals.
The striking doctors want to double the price of the basic consultation – from 25 to 50 euros – in order to make appointments more fluid by expanding their secretariat, defending their working conditions, including freedom of installation they consider threatened.
Borne relativizes the extent of the mobilization
Elisabeth Borne began by relativizing the extent of the mobilization: “It is part of the organizations which represent the doctors who called for the strike.” She was referring here to the collective “Doctors for tomorrow”, spearhead of the movement. The Prime Minister also assured that the negotiations were still relevant between the institutions and the organizations: “There is an ongoing discussion between the doctors and the Health Insurance.”
She then condemned the strike more clearly: “I can hear that they may encounter difficulties and wish for improvements, but it is really not responsible to strike, especially in a festive period when it has increased the tensions on the hospital”. “I say it very clearly: it is not responsible,” she insisted.
Tribute to the hospital
Previously, the head of government had welcomed the action of the public hospital, while emphasizing the saturation that reigns there: “I again want to pay tribute to the caregivers. Our hospitals are facing three simultaneous epidemics: bronchiolitis, influenza , the Covid. And once again, caregivers are very mobilized to cope.”
Beyond the question of general practitioners, she further affirmed that the executive had already taken several measures in favor of caregivers: “We have provided the first answers in the first five-year period with significant increases. It is 300 euros per month more for a novice nurse, if we give orders of magnitude.”
“We see that we have not settled everything with these salary increases, that there are other subjects to be dealt with”, she however recognized, before listing: “What the caregivers talk to us about today, these are issues of organization, of freeing up medical time.”
“My government will present a roadmap in a week to meet these expectations and provide a response both to caregivers and to French people who wish to have a functioning health system”, committed Elisabeth Borne.
François Braun had already deemed the movement “unwelcome”
Elisabeth Borne’s remarks with regard to these general practitioners recall those of her Minister of Health François Braun, last Wednesday. On the sidelines of a trip to Annecy, he told the press that suspending his medical activity was “unwelcome”, that this strike was taking place “at the wrong time”.
“It’s not the right time, it’s not in the most difficult period like now that it’s a good thing to strike,” he said.
