Health Insurance has opened the way to an increase in the price of general medicine consultations. Frédéric Valletoux “hopes” to see the negotiations succeed quickly.
Frédéric Valletoux is one of the new arrivals to the government. His appointment to the Ministry of Health on February 8 caused a shudder in part of the sector, the former president of the French hospital federation being considered too far from the interests of community medicine. However, the delegate minister gave pledges of goodwill to general practitioners this Friday, February 16 on Franceinfowelcoming the progress of negotiations between their unions and Health Insurance.
Discussions around an increase in the price of consultations with general practitioners resumed at the beginning of February. On February 8, Health Insurance opened the way to an increase in the price from 26.5 euros to 30 euros, as well as “revaluation measures specific to each of the specialties”. However, some considerations were put on the table, including a reinforcement of the liberal doctors’ guards “in the first part of the night”.
“It’s necessary”
“I hope it will come to fruition as quickly as possible,” Frédéric Valletoux said this Friday about the 30 euro price. “It is necessary,” said the delegate minister, because “we need a health system which is much more inclusive and which trusts its professionals”. He wanted to recall the other supporters of the current negotiations: “Behind the 30 euros, it’s not just that, there are also complex consultations, how we revalue actions in specialties where we suffer a lot today , I think of pediatrics, I think of mental health, of psychiatry”.
Asked about strengthening the guards of independent doctors, a sensitive subject for the sector, the minister was cautious. “In any contract, everyone takes a step towards the other,” he said, before recalling that “already 40% of private doctors participate in on-call hours, after 8 p.m., on weekends and public holidays” .