more than 2,000 foreign doctors risk being fired due to failure to renew their contracts

To fight against medical deserts, Emmanuel Macron said, during his press conference on Tuesday, that he wanted to “regularize a number of foreign doctors who sometimes hold our healthcare services at arm’s length”. These doctors are today left “in administrative precariousness which is completely ineffective,” added the president.

It’s a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Since January 1, according to the unions, 2,000 to 3,000 foreign doctors who work in French establishments risk being dismissed from their position for lack of renewal of their contract. They were recruited during the state of health emergency and have been providing care in recent years in precarious conditions.

Without their presence, entire services in certain establishments would not be able to function. A petition signed by more than 19,000 people calls for their reinstatement. An inter-union organization is calling for a demonstration on Thursday January 18 in front of the Ministry of Health, after having filed a strike notice on Wednesday.

These doctors are called “Padhue”, the acronym for “Practitioners with a diploma outside the European Union”. These doctors, according to several hospital unions, represent a quarter of the practitioners working in hospitals today. They do not have tenure status and have a lower salary. For a year, to continue practicing and obtain the status of “associate practitioner”, better paid, these foreign doctors have had to pass a competition called “EVC” for “knowledge verification tests”.

But many failed in this competition and found themselves without a contract in December. This is the case of Sarah, who works as an oncologist in Picardy. The thirty-year-old arrived in France in 2019 from Morocco. “Whoever says end of contract means no right to a residence permit with a risk of OQTF [Obligation de quitter le territoire]she explains. It’s a precarious situation, we don’t take into account our internships, nor our practices, nor the time spent in the hospital and what we gave to the hospital and after two years, we are told ‘thank you, Goodbye’,” regrets Sarah.

Kader works as a diabetologist in the Paris region. He trained in his specialty. His contract ends on Thursday. He also did not pass the competition, due to lack of time to revise it. He works between 50 and 70 hours per week for just over 2,000 euros per month. “By working 60 to 70 hours a week, it is impossible to prepare for the competition, he justifies, it must be revisited for generations to come and it must be completely abandoned for the people on the ground.”, demands Kader. Contract or not, the doctor will continue to practice, he says, so as not to abandon his colleague in the same situation as him. The service relies on them.

According to the unions, they are full-fledged professionals

Doctor Cyril Venet, an anesthesiologist at Grenoble University Hospital, who represents hospital doctors at Force Ouvrière, calls for the reintegration of these doctors into the services and the end of the OQTF for medical professions. For him, it is necessary to take into account their professional experience rather than basing everything on a competition.

“Without them, we will close a few more beds, there will be a few more unstaffed on-call lines and a few more patients waiting for consultations.”

Dr Cyril Venet

at franceinfo

Maxime Morin, general secretary at the CFDT for hospital executives and directors, believes that the problem is not the EVCs as such, but rather the moment when these events occur in the career of these caregivers. working in France. “Yes, the EVC should be the only entry point. This is the formula that was expected and which seems to me the most respectful of people to whom we say: ‘You want to come and work in France to pass the competition? If you are recognized, you will come. And indeed, there must not be people who are already working, to whom we make this dangle. Because obviously if they fail, they are supposed to stop. Leave again or not, but in any case stop practicing their profession.”

Today, the only hope for these foreign doctors is to commit to retaking the competition with the possibility of a provisional exercise of thirteen additional months. Or even more precariousness, respond those concerned. Knowing that the decree of the brand new law which authorizes it has still not been published.