foreign doctors are mobilizing once again for administrative regularization

4 mins

Due to weather conditions leading to the cancellation of several trains, there were fewer of them than expected, but the few dozen present made their voices heard under the windows of their ministry to demand the regularization of all the trains. Padhuethat is to say practitioners holding a diploma obtained outside the European Union.

Among the several dozen caregivers with foreign diplomas present at the event, Doctor Bienvenu Luemba. This trained general practitioner arrived from Congo-Brazzaville less than a year ago. Married to a French woman, he has no administrative problems, but many of his colleagues are in a stressful situation, he explains on the microphone ofAram Mbengue of the Company department. “ They are stressed all the time, they can’t really have long-term plans. I know a friend, for example, he can’t go see his family in his country because his visa expired in October. He renewed it, except that since then, [le visa] is still not released, and it is only valid for six months and every six months it must be renewed. »

In solidarity with their foreign colleagues, French practitioners are also at their side such as Doctor Cyrille Venet, head of the intensive care department at Grenoble University Hospital. “ Yes, I am there out of solidarity, but I am not only there out of solidarity, I am also there for my own interest, because my interest is that I can hospitalize sick people, and for that, I need of beds, and it turns out that colleagues do the same job as us – run services, hold consultations, keep on-call lists – and that will impact us, so we won’t be able to keep up. »

These doctors, as President Macron recalled last Tuesday during his press conference, sometimes keep healthcare services in France at arm’s length. There are in fact several thousand of them working in French hospitals where they represent around a quarter of the workforce.

For more than twenty years, medical desertification has led many health establishments to recruit doctors qualified outside the European Union. Very poorly paid and precarious, they could hope to obtain a “full exercise authorization” after a complex procedure lasting several years.

A temporary regime abolished in December

These practitioners qualified outside the European Union must in principle pass a selective competition, called “knowledge verification tests”, then follow a two-year skills consolidation course at the hospital, before having their file examined by the committee. But an exceptional regime has existed for a long time, allowing hospitals to recruit non-laureates under various very precarious statuses, paid between 1,500 and 2,200 euros net per month. This temporary regime, extended several times, definitively ended on December 31, 2023. It is now impossible to renew their contracts. They all had to pass the required tests this year to continue practicing. “Except that with 10,000 candidates for the competition – some of whom registered from abroad – for 2,700 open positions, it is impossible,” laments Halim Bensaïdi.

► The passed Immigration Law and a new minister appointed leave the PADHUE without a solution! (union call)

Doctor Halim Abdelhalim Bensaïdi came from Algeria. This diabetologist has been working in France since 2019, he is vice-president of the Ipadecc association, Integration of qualified practitioners outside the European Union.

“ My contract expired yesterday and I still have no response for (its) renewal! The President of the Republic promises to regularize us, apparently the Prime Minister continues with the President’s project to regularize foreign doctors, except that officially, we do not have a text which allows us to continue the exercise of our noble profession , which we have practiced with dignity for years, he regrets at the microphoneAram Mbengue.

On the ground, there are 2,000 doctors who have not been regularized to date, despite the speech of the President of the Republic. We ask ourselves questions about our fate: what will we become tomorrow? And for some who were laid off on December 31, who received OQTF [Obligation de quitter le territoire français, NDLR]we are really asking ourselves this question of the lack of medical personnel while today, in France, we are laying off and giving OQTFs to doctors who are ready to practice their profession.

Concretely, I think that one line of legal text is enough to say that it will be necessary to keep foreign doctors in post with long-term contracts and registration with the Council of the Order, because today, so many if we are not registered with the Order, we will continue in precariousness. People are paid between 1,400 and 2,000 euros, it’s just outrageous compared to their total dedication to French hospitals.. »

(and with FAP)