After taking to the streets to ask for the consultation to be doubled, the liberal doctors deplore the working conditions of a trade “in danger”.
The liberal doctors took to the streets by the thousands on Thursday afternoon in Paris to obtain a revaluation of the consultation. The central demand of the collective “Doctors for tomorrow”, at the origin of the strike movement, remains the doubling of the basic consultation fee (from 25 to 50 euros).
“Let’s be reasonable,” replied François Braun, the Minister of Health, on Thursday. However, according to Doctor Tura Milo, in the street this Thursday, “it is possible”, even if the doubling of the tariff is not essential.
“We want to be paid on the European average, around 45 euros,” she asked on BFMTV.
“Coercive” packages
At the center of the demands of the Parisian general practitioner, is the abolition of the packages put in place by the public authorities and paid to doctors if they fulfill a certain number of tasks.
“Indeed, the consultation is at 25 euros, but we all have additional packages which, in fact, make our consultations rather around 36 euros”, she explained.
Except that these packages, introduced since 2012, are, according to the health professional, “forms of coercion”.
She developed: “We have the impression that, little by little, we are being bought. We are becoming civil servants. Liberal medicine is being civilized, which is against our initial objective as liberal doctors.”
So, the group of “Doctors for tomorrow” asks “to repeal these packages and switch them to fee-for-service for consultations as doctors”.
This switch would have very little impact on the patient’s wallet, for Dr. Tura Millo. “The patient may pay more but will be reimbursed more,” she said.
