“What we find unbearable is being singled out as war profiteers by the authorities after all that we have been through with our staff” declared Monday, November 14 on franceinfo Lionel Barrand president of the National Union of Medical Biologists Les BIOMED. The laboratories are on strike for three days to denounce the bill which provides for 250 million euros in savings in the sector.
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The Covid-19 crisis brought seven billion euros to the sector. According to Lionel Barrand, the laboratories are ready to participate in “collective effort” after the pandemic, but they want this effort to be done on “COVID analyzes” and not on “routine and emergency analyses”. This Monday, “95% of laboratories are closed in city medicine”, he indicated.
franceinfo: What has been planned today for urgent analyses?
Lionel Barrand: What is planned is to manage everything related to chemotherapy, dialysis patients and to have the possibility of working behind closed doors. The lab is closed to the public. On the other hand, our employees, in particular the private nurses who work from home for certain urgent blood tests, are treated on the technical platform. For the other people, the laboratories are open in the hospital structures for these three days. There is a system that has been put in place to precisely manage emergencies in our laboratories.
The government says that the Covid crisis has brought you 7 billion euros financed by social security. Not ready to make an effort?
Yes, exactly ! The government has asked for savings of 250 million euros. We understand that we must participate in the collective effort following the Covid crisis even if this money has not been stolen. This is a major point. We agree with this saving of 250 million euros via an exceptional Covid tax, since we are indeed talking about an exceptional Covid situation. On the other hand, what we do not agree on is that the government is asking to save money not only on Covid analyses, but on routine and emergency analyses, therefore directly on biology Proximity. This is what attacks local laboratories and therefore the service to the population.
For you, is it a red line?
This is the red line and moreover, we received the support of the Senate on this position. But we have the impression that the government wants to destroy not only local biology, but also local medicine, since it is not only in laboratories that we are not happy with the latest bill. What we find unbearable is to be singled out as war profiteers by the authorities after all that we have been through with our staff when we had to test, test and test on the orders of the government which , I recall, decided the rates himself, decided the open bar policy and whatever it cost against our advice. They didn’t listen to us and now they are attacking us for doing the job they themselves asked of us.
Minister Gabriel Attal is called to a form of decency towards the professionals who were on the front line alongside the population.
Lionel Barrandat franceinfo
I repeat, we are ready to give these 250 million to participate in the collective effort, but not on local biology. It was, moreover, the word of the government. The government lied to us when, not more than a year ago, it told us ‘invest as much as possible because it will only be on Covid and we are not taking this money back from local biology.’