The lab strike continues. It is scheduled until Wednesday and is renewable if the negotiations are unsuccessful. 250 million euros less from the State, “willingly or by force to compensate for the profits” made during the covid epidemic (3 billion euros gross with the covid years). This Monday, 95% of laboratories were on strike nationwide.A movement followed in the Indre.
Julien Maulde-Robert is a liberal nurse in Châteauroux, president of the FNI liberal nurses union in Indre. He explains that this strike forces postpone all non-urgent direct debits“we will adapt to the situation to best meet the needs of patients. It is the strength of the liberal exercise to adapt to demand. There is a particular context here. We adapt“. A situation for the moment not alarming, especially since the liberal nurses support this strike action,”what is imposed on them is enough brutal in form and substance. When we also know that it is the same people who imposed a grouping of laboratories which now imposes drastic price reductions on them.
One more step towards medical deserts?
The nurse asks about the future of the liberal medical professions“obviously, what is happening to them, it gives us some alerts. Indeed, by dint of regrouping like that, in structural form, in the long term, we can clearly see what has been happening among biologists for several years. It’s the loss of closeness__. So not in our departments, fortunately. It participates with the demographics of health professionals, it contributes to the lack of access to care.”
A situation that could accelerate medical desertification. It is also the possible consequences that Hervé Leylde, biologist at the biomedical laboratory center in Châteauroux, points out, on strike. “Reduced budgets lead to lower quality analyses. And above all, currently, the laboratories are located all over France. There really isn’t a biological medical deserts. As in other health professions. And that’s what we want keep__”, he argues.
“Such an amount had never happened”
Two years after covid, for the biologist it is experienced a bit like a treason from the state. “There have already been negotiations, but we have never had such a move, 250 million savings to be made per year over four years. Such an amount had never happened.“ For the state, it would be 1 billion euros in savings over four years. Hervé Leylde is not very optimistic for the future. “It is considered that the laboratories have made a profit and that now it is time to repay. While it took a lot of work, making a lot of investments and this money that was earned is not due. And I think thatwe are not on the same wavelength at alleffectively.”
If “public” analyzes are not possible, the medical emergencies are of course processed by the laboratories. L’Châteauroux hospital is not affected neither, since the laboratory continues its activity for him.