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At the call of the collective Doctor for tomorrow, the strike of liberal doctors is renewed until January 8 inclusive. A demonstration is also planned in Paris.
If you had to consult your doctor this week, you may still find the door closed. Indeed, the Doctors for tomorrow collective has decided to renew its call for a strike for a second consecutive week, coupled with a demonstration on January 5 in Paris towards the Ministry of Health.
Their main demand: to double the basic consultation fee
As a reminder, the striking doctors are indeed demanding a doubling of the basic consultation fee (from 25 to 50 euros), with the aim of creating a “shock of attractiveness” towards city medicine in dire need of practitioners at the actual hour. In addition, the collective wishes that the freedom of installation be assured to the liberal doctors.
“It is with great regret and bitterness that we officially call for a second week of strike by liberal doctors in France: from January 2 to 8, 2023 inclusive. Hopefully this time we are heard…” explains the collective on its website.
“The government has unfortunately not deigned to pay attention to us despite this first week of strike”explains Doctors for tomorrow, who judges to have been “lectured” by François braun, the Minister of Health, while the latter had described the mobilization as “particularly unwelcome at this time of extreme difficulty for the health system”. According to Dr. Christelle Audigier, founder of the collective at the microphone of RMC “at least one out of two medical offices will be mobilized”.
Does the movement increase the pressure on emergencies?
In a current context of pressure on the emergency services, one can however wonder if this strike, although legitimate, does not accentuate the problem and the difficulties of the patients to be supported correctly.
For Patrick Pelloux, emergency doctor and president of the association of emergency doctors of France contacted on the subject, the evil is much deeper than the strike in which the liberal doctors engage:
“We are used to liberal doctors being on strike, and we must respect their motivations as strikers. They ask for a higher remuneration, it is the game of the liberal world. On the emergency side, the bronchiolitis is calming down, the flu is still there and the covid kills a hundred people a day, it’s not moving much” he lists.
But the doctor targets much more sharply the system in place, which is running to its loss:
“It is not the consequences on the emergencies that are tragic but on the people themselves. And there, we observe an excess mortality indeed. The liberal doctors are not responsible, it is a multifactorial consequence, because of a health system in total decline” he says.
Before denouncing, for example, the 19 billion promised by the Ségur de la Santé, to improve patient care. “Except that this money is only used to guarantee banks and insurers that their debts will be paid, it does nothing for the public hospital”
The Liberals’ strike could therefore well harden and be coupled with a broader movement:
“This is why we are meeting tomorrow (January 4 Editor’s note) with trade union and medical confederations. We are also going to enter into the dispute because things are no longer understandable” he confirms to Doctissimo.