MEPs reject measure restricting freedom of settlement

The measure was opposed by the government. The deputies rejected, by 168 votes against 127, Wednesday June 14, a transpartisan amendment whose objective was to impose stricter rules in the installation of doctors on the territory, in order to better distribute the caregivers and fight against the medical deserts. It provided that liberal doctors and dental surgeons who wish to settle in areas already well provided with caregivers must obtain authorization from the Regional Health Agency, conditional on the departure of a practitioner practicing the same specialty.

The amendment was carried by the socialist Guillaume Garot, and a transpartisan group of elected officials from almost all political groups, including those of the presidential camp. The RN was not associated. The deputies were brought to decide on this amendment within the framework of the examination in first reading of the text against the medical deserts, carried by Frédéric Valletoux (Horizons group).

“Our health cannot depend on our postal code”

“The incentive policies practiced for decades have not produced the results we expected. We tell our doctors ‘don’t go and settle in territories that are already well provided for. Go and settle where you will want somewhere else'”insisted Guillaume Garot on Tuesday. “Our health cannot depend on our postal code. We continue!”he reacted in particular, in the process, on his Twitter account.

Strongly opposed to the measure, the Minister of Health François Braun castigated a measure which risks “stigmatize doctors” and train “refusals of installation, retirements and” disconventions “. “The real subject is that we have few caregivers”, retorted the rapporteur Frédéric Valletoux, pleading for a regulatory system within 5 or 10 years, the time that more doctors are trained.