Between the biology laboratories and the National Health Insurance Fund, nothing is going well. Considering “the dialogue blocked”, the first decided, from January 2, 2023, to no longer report the results of the screening tests for Covid-19, the raw material for monitoring the epidemic in France. This decision, which is superimposed on the many breaks in the recovery of tests already expected due to the end-of-year holidays, risks blurring public health visibility a little more, while the hospital is also dealing with epidemics. flu – very early and intense – and bronchiolitis – on the decline.
“Patients will be able to continue to be tested in the laboratories but the government will not receive any data feedback” in the national file, the unions said on Saturday, December 31, in a press release to AFP. “If this is not enough, we are considering a new national strike over several days and the total cessation of Covid acts for an indefinite period,” they added.
In the viewfinder, the 2024-2026 budget
The strikers believe that it is now up to the government to “take responsibility and not take the population hostage”. “It’s a black January to avoid black years”, they plead. Biologists, who have greatly increased their profits with Covid tests, have been contesting for many weeks the amount of savings that will be asked of them in return in the coming years.
On October 27, the laboratories had already suspended the transmission of the results of their RT-PCR screening tests (Covid tests) to the national SI-DEP file, making it more difficult to monitor the evolution of the epidemic. “We are pursuing our public health mission, without penalizing patients and free of charge, but without ensuring our major role in monitoring the epidemic”, specified the Alliance of Medical Biology (ABM) at the time.
If a compromise seems in sight on the budgetary puncture for the year 2023, up to 250 million euros (divided between Covid tests and other examinations) as wanted by the government, the negotiation is blocked over the period 2024-2026.
Social Security, however, puts on the table an envelope of 150 million over three years, to reimburse “innovative acts” currently reserved for hospitals. But without specifying the amount of savings expected on other acts, referred to “the signing of a multi-year protocol before the end of the first half”.
However, biologists have already set their red line in terms of price reductions: no more than 145 million euros per year. Going beyond “would lead to the closure of at least 400 local laboratories (and) the elimination of at least 10,000 skilled jobs”, they say.