From the start of the school year, 1,500 fewer interns will be working in French hospitals. The cause: a reform of the internship competition that has forced many students to repeat their year. This drop in numbers is expected to intensify the already existing dysfunctions.
The French health system is about to face new difficulties. Starting next year, 1,500 intern positions will be eliminated in hospitals. This difference is explained by the drop in the number of candidates this year.
The cause: a reform of the internship competition that forced many students to repeat their year. They preferred to get better grades next year to have a better chance of getting their specialty.
This reform involves the introduction of a cut-off mark of 14 out of 20 and the addition of an oral exam.
For François Salachas, neurologist and spokesperson for the inter-hospital collective, this reaction from students is a sign of a lack of confidence in health.
“When we don’t have confidence, we act personally. And it’s the same for hospital caregivers. That’s why there are so many temporary workers: it’s because we’ve broken up the healthcare collective so much that they take their salary and leave, and in the meantime, there’s no stable team, and the quality of care requires a stable team,” he analyzes.
A petition launched by students who passed the competition
As a result, fewer positions will be available for interns. While there were 9,500 in 2023, there will be just under 8,000 this year. A situation that students who have passed their competitive exams denounce in a petition which has so far collected 9,200 signatures.
They point out the difficulties of accessing their specialty and are asking for the reopening of negotiations on the number of intern positions offered.
This reduction in staff numbers is a hard blow for health professionals who fear an additional workload.
“As an intern, we represent 40% of the medical staff in public hospitals, particularly at the university hospital. Undeniably, we risk having an additional workload and this also risks creating slightly longer waiting times for patients,” says Yassine Bahr, vice-president of the National Intern Union.
Services in difficulty
The situation also causes concern for Christophe Prudhomme, spokesperson for AMUF (Association of Emergency Physicians of France).
“The problem is that this sudden drop in the number of interns will cause a certain number of difficulties in departments which rely heavily on interns to provide night shifts, i.e. emergency, intensive care, radiology, biology departments…”, he lists.
For the spokesperson, it is clear that this reduction in staff will aggravate the dysfunctions already known today at the hospital.
To fill the gaps and the lack of staff, health professionals are working more hours and more shifts. The government is promising to hire foreign doctors to make up for the understaffing. But staff must be found by November and trained in the French medical system.
In the meantime, French hospitals are preparing for the mpox (or monkeypox) epidemic. Gabriel Attal announced this Friday, August 16, the placement of the French health system in a “state of maximum vigilance.”
Ameline Lavechin with Mélanie Hennebique
