Scheduled until January 2, the strike of liberal doctors is extended by at least a week. At the origin of the mobilization, the collective “Doctors for tomorrow” expresses its “anger” at the lack of dialogue with the government.
Demonstration of liberal doctors on December 1 in Nancy. (MAXPPP)
“There is no will to work and to respond to our proposals” on the part of the government, launches this Monday on France Bleu Bearn Bigorre Vonick Corvest, one of the spokespersons of the collective “Doctors for tomorrow”, while the strike of liberal doctors is renewed at least until January 8th. This social movement, which began on December 26, 2022, was to end on January 2, but it continues because the strikers believe that they are “not heard or listened to” by the executive. Vonick Corvest shares the collective’s “anger and incomprehension” at the government’s lack of response to their strike.
The Minister of Health, Francois Braun had deplored the dates of this social movement, between Christmas and New Year, highlighting the triple epidemic which hits hospitals (flu, coronavirus and bronchiolitis). Vonick Corvest recognizes that the moment “is terrible”, but he recalls that the negotiations carried out with the National Health Insurance Fund to dictate “the time zones for practitioners” take place “from the beginning of December to March, the worst period but it’s like that every five years”. This general practitioner in Bizanos (Pyrenees-Atlantiques) believes that these dates being set by the government, the executive could have postponed them. “The government has the possibility of requisitioning us, but nothing has been done,” he notes.
Not a “simple financial request”
The group calls for the offices of general practitioners to be closed until January 8 to demand the doubling of the price of consultations (from 25 to 50 euros) and better conditions of practice. This claim is not “a simple financial request”, explains Monday, January 2 on France Bleu Lorraine Nord doctor Sylvain Gonzalez, doctor in Marly (Moselle) and another spokesperson for “Doctors for tomorrow”. This increase in prices would allow, according to him “to be able to hire staff and re-attract doctors to France”. “If we don’t have a strong measure for the attractiveness of the profession, we see a very bleak future,” fears Sylvain Gonzalez.
The Moselle spokesperson for the collective deplores a “burnout rate of more than 48% at the level of the medical profession”. He calls on the government to take “strong measures to make young students want to enroll and doctors not to go to other countries or change their activity”.