Guest on franceinfo on Tuesday, the president of the French Union for Free Medicine denounces Gabriel Attal’s “tinkering” after his general policy speech.
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a7df4c5fe71_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 2 min
:quality(50)/2023/07/20/64b95238b048e_maxnewsfrfive124746.jpg)
“The Prime Minister has once again shown a government that tends to make a health policy that runs like a headless duck,” reacted, Tuesday January 30, on franceinfo, Doctor Jérôme Marty, general practitioner and president of the UFML, the French Union for Free Medicine, after Gabriel Attal’s general policy speech.
Jérôme Marty sees in the Prime Minister’s speech “announcements that do not take into account the catastrophe that the French experience every day with a health system that is on the ground.” On health policy, the president of the UFML expected “something other than DIY”.
Guards without compensatory rest
The Prime Minister notably threatened to restore on-call obligations for private doctors, in departments where the Access to Care Service (SAS) would not succeed in being set up. “We are going to force doctors to be on call without talking about compensatory rest”, deplores Jérôme Marty. He recalls that in liberal medicine, “when you are on call, you do not have compensatory rest the next day”while in the hospital, “you are on call, you have compensatory rest. The private doctor cannot”.
Gabriel Attal also promised to appoint an emissary “responsible for looking abroad for doctors who would like to come and practice in France” and confirmed “the regularization of foreign doctors on our territory” to address the shortage of caregivers.
Regularization of foreign doctors
The regularization of foreign doctors is “a very good thing”, believes Jérôme Marty. “We must, finally, resolve the problem of these foreign doctors who have provided enormous services to France, particularly during Covid, and who are often mistreated by France.”
But the president of the UFML denounces the fact of looking for doctors abroad. “I was expecting something other than saying, we are going to appoint an emissary to look for doctors in other countries to find doctors who want to come to France. It’s not Tintin in the Congo.” “Françafrique is over, the colonies are over”the doctor is indignant. “There are countries that need their doctors. We are not going to rob countries to improve the fate of France.”
On appointments not honored by patients, which Gabriel Attal intends to charge, “we need to change the law,” assures Jérôme Marty. “We have no right to charge for an act that was not carried out.” But then it will be necessary “see how we make this patient pay. We are told, Health Insurance will directly debit the patient’s account.” He finally points out a “legal problem which is that of proving that the appointment was not honored. It is not that obvious.”