Some GPs started a strike on Monday. In particular, they are asking for the price of the consultation to be doubled, to increase from 25 to 50 euros.
While France is going through a triple epidemic and emergency services are overwhelmed, some liberal doctors have decided to go on strike this week, angering Health Minister François Braun. “It is the young people who have decided to strike, it is the base which is mobilizing”, notes Doctor Claude Bronner, based in Strasbourg.
Launched by the Doctors for Tomorrow collective, the initiative which began on Monday and which is expected to continue until January 2, would concern around 10,000 health professionals, as specified by Soline Guillaumin, general practitioner on strike in Metz.
“We are doing this to save liberal medicine”, assures the health professional.
Double the price of the consultation
But what exactly are these striking doctors demanding? How can such a movement be justified, when French people find themselves waiting an hour in front of the premises of SOS Médecins, as journalists from BFM Lille noted on Monday?
Among the first demands, that of the passage of the price of the consultation from 25 to 50 euros is the measure most frequently put forward. “That does not mean doubling our salary!” warns Soline Guillaumin.
“This would allow us to hire a medical assistant, a secretary, to be able to put ourselves in a group… If we want to work with several people, we need large premises, staff… We have to pay these people. It is not to enrich us”, assures the striking doctor.
Same request from Jean-Paul Hamon, generalist on strike in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine). “On December 1, I was in front of the ministry. I noticed that there were 70% of women, including three of my former externs. One said to me: ‘you know Jean-Paul, if we leave at 25 euros , I’m going to have to fire my cleaning lady. They don’t even have the means to pay for a secretary!”, fumes the doctor.
Put pressure on treaty negotiations
This request comes as conventional negotiations between general practitioners and the National Health Insurance Fund are taking place, delayed for two years by the Covid-19 epidemic. But for Jean-Paul Hamon, the executive “decided to let the situation rot”.
“The government is acting as if it has time. It is negotiating until March, with decisions that will apply in six months, while the country is becoming deserted, doctors are not install more, because they don’t have the conditions to do it properly,” he continues. The strike is therefore a means of pressure in this context.
“It’s hopeless to come to close the cabinets to put the pressure. The government is angry? The poor kitten. And we are not angry”, retorts Jean-Paul Hamon.
But how to finance this doubling of the consultation fee, when the financial situation of social security is largely in deficit, aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Soline Guillaumin evokes the track of mutuals, “called to put their hands in the basket”.
A “shock of attraction”
The various general practitioners interviewed, on strike or supporting the movement, underline the desire to create a “shock of attractiveness”. The profession of general practitioner no longer attracts young medical students, while his role is central in society.
Reforming the health system in depth is therefore necessary to restore a taste for this profession, considered “exciting” by those who practice it. But that would have lost meaning in recent years.
Bruno Mégarbane, head of the intensive care unit at the Lariboisière hospital in Paris, makes a bitter observation: “Liberal medicine suffers from the same ailments as in the hospital, with increasing paperwork, fixed costs which increase… We let’s do these tasks to the detriment of the time we spend with patients. (…) If private doctors have to do extensive administrative tasks, we are faced with a crisis in the health system”.
“We have put billions on the hospital without reforming the health system. However, when you do not have strong city medicine, which makes it possible to avoid hospitalizations or to shorten them, this is what we arrive at” , believes Jean-Paul Hamon.
save city medicine
Faced with the timing of the strike, which comes in a tense situation for the French hospital system, some, however, have reservations about the current movement.
“City medicine is suffering as much as hospital medicine. It’s not the right time to strike. We chose this profession because we have deep values, and right now, we need everyone. national solidarity is needed”, judge Agnès Ricard-Hibon, spokesperson for the French medical society.
But for Soline Guillaumin, if GPs want to save their profession, we must act now.
“As a doctor, it’s very difficult to go on strike. It’s been 20 years since we last did something like this. But it’s essential to protect our patients through this movement”, judge- she.
