From April 3, the salary of temporary doctors will be capped in public hospitals. A change that will lead to the closure of “hundreds of guard lines”, according to a union.
The salary cap for temporary doctors at the public hospital, which will come into effect on April 3, will lead to the closure of “hundreds of on-call lines”, the emergency physicians’ union Amuf said on Monday.
“Hundreds of guard lines will be closed”
The tension rises three weeks before the fateful date. “Hundreds of on-call lines will be closed in a few days,” warned the Association of Emergency Physicians of France (Amuf) in a statement.
This union – chaired by Patrick Pelloux – “alert on the law of supervision of the medical interim”, which will result according to him by these “closures in defiance of the sick”.
From April 3, public hospitals will no longer be able to pay a doctor above 1,170 euros gross for 24-hour care, under penalty of legal action.
“Unacceptable drifts” in the interim
The government intends to apply a measure passed in January 2016, reinforced by a second law in April 2021, but since suspended due to the Covid epidemic.
Its entry into force has the support of the French Hospital Federation (FHF), whose president Arnaud Robinet once more denounced Sunday on France Info the “unacceptable excesses” of the interim, which costs “1.5 billion euros each year” to public establishments.
“We mightn’t go on like this,” he added.
Staff requisitions?
If he says he is “aware of the difficulties” that this risks causing, he asks “that the prefects can requisition the personnel when the time comes” if necessary.
But doubts remain. The anesthetists of the SNPHARE union, although in favor of the measure, thus believe that “putting the gun to the temples” of the temporary workers will not solve the problem “without increasing the attractiveness of hospital medical careers”.
Same “concerns” among the mayors of the Association of Small Towns of France (APVF), who “wish the end of mercenary activity” in their hospitals but are already demanding “detailed exemptions” in order to avoid closures of services in early April.
