While a law plans to regulate their remuneration, meeting with three luxury interim doctors in the four corners of France. Portraits.
By Marc Payet
© FREDERIC SCHEIBER / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
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CThey are luxury temporary workers, itinerant doctors who rent their skills at a very high price in hospitals faced with a shortage of nursing staff. Some of these stethoscope snipers can pocket close to $7,000 for a good week of off-duty guards. The law of the market applied to the hospital! But from April, it is the Rist law that applies and must put an end to this practice. It plans to cap the remuneration of these essential auxiliaries, at 1,170 euros gross per 24 hours of care in hospital services. Or, for some, two to three times less than the usual price. Unacceptable for many of these doctors often described as mercenaries by their hospital colleagues. They see themselves rather as an indispensable cog in an already seriously seized up hospital machine. Without this cog, it’s guaranteed breakage. Portrait of these interim practitioners whom the hospital cannot do without.
Éric Reboli, temporary hospital doctor at €6,900 per week
More than the word “mercenary” – which he “hates” and finds “defamatory” – Dr Éric Reboli accepts being described as “insatiable”. “But I’m just responding to market demand. It’s not my fault if so many establishments ask us all the time, ”explains this emergency doctor, spokesperson for the National Union of Replacement Hospital Physicians (SNMHR). His work week literally makes you dizzy. “Friday March 3, I did 24 hours of emergency and pediatric care at the private hospital in Valence (Drôme). Paid 1,500 euros net. Saturday evening, March 4, I spent the night in a clinic in Lyon. Fortunately, otherwise it was closed. 900 euros net for twelve hours. Sunday morning March 5 I took a train to go to the Paris region. I did 24 hours on call on Monday March 6 at CH Rives-de-Seine in Neuilly-Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine). Paid 1,500 euros net. Tuesday, March 7, I rested at my home in Lyon. Wednesday March 8, I was not supposed to work but Valence called me back because they had no one. So I did 24-hour call, paid 1,500 euros net. Thursday, I rested and Friday, March 10, I do another 24-hour call, in Valencia, paid 1,500 euros net. “A huge activity, paid, therefore, in just one week, the tidy sum of… 6,900 net! “It was a big week. I often do less, ”tempers Dr. Reboli. His income fluctuates depending on the month “between 15,000 euros net” and other times “nothing at all, when I decide not to do anything”.READ ALSO Mobilization of caregivers: “There is an emergency”
“We are given the label of mercenaries, but who is there to go and help out as quickly as possible in Chalon-sur-Saône, Bourges or Les Sables d’Olonne? I receive dozens of offers on my email from temp boxes and hundreds of hospital offers. And we are many in my case. We follow the law of supply and demand. At 57, this father of three children protests. “But why don’t we criticize the income of airplane pilots or footballers? We have a big responsibility. The problem is that our fellow hospital practitioners are not paid enough. We are scapegoats. The government does not realize the mess it got into with this law. It’s gonna be an earthquake. »
Christine*, metro, work and camp in Corsica
A stay in the Isle of Beauty, the possibility of swimming in the big blue and going out with friends, in the evening, what might be better? It is the punctual choice of life of Christine, in her forties, who comes from time to time to do temporary assignments in the establishments of Ajaccio or Bastia. She does this in addition to her activity as a part-time hospital practitioner in Île-de-France. “It’s a bit like summer camp. It relaxes me. We’re not going to lie to each other, some destinations are more attractive than others! she confides. She can count on her paid round-trip plane tickets and hotel accommodation. However, Christine is not there on vacation. “We run the shop. Especially in summer there is a lot of work in the emergency room, with vacationers. But I understand that we irritate the incumbents because we are now more numerous than them. We have the right to decide who we work with, for the schedules. She chose this formula because it reminds her of her “freer student life”.
READ ALSOHealth must be a political priority for the 2022 presidential electionChristine also notes that “temporary work has changed a lot. Young people, old people in early retirement and hospital practitioners […] who want to vary their activity. Christine does not consider herself a mercenary. “The mercenary exists, yes, but less than before. He is the one who accepts 24-hour care at 2,000 euros net, in a rotten place, out of the lure of profit, who does bad medicine and leaves the other colleagues in the lurch. It can be dangerous for patients. “But from April, she no longer accepts temporary assignments. “Currently, I am paid 650 euros net for a day, without night care, with 10% more paid leave. On these services, with the Rist law, it will only be 390 euros net. I was doing four-day missions. Now, that doesn’t interest me anymore. I will rather do a few more guards in my hospital in Île-de-France, with which I have a regular contract. “Christine wonders how the island hospitals will operate: “It will be very hot. For example, an Italian doctor comes every other week on call, 5 days a week, 24 hours a day, day and night, and pockets 5,000 euros. It will no longer be possible. Hopefully they can find a local solution…”
Gaël*, 33 years old, young temporary doctor, for lack of anything better
“You know, I wish I had a well-paid doctor’s job. But in Saint-Étienne I was offered 2,200 euros as a starting salary and I was only taken part-time, that is 1,100 euros per month. After ten years of study, it was impossible to accept, I said no. Gaël therefore launched into the interim. “We have the impression of being useful, of doing humanitarian work. I like to adapt, do my best, meet new teams, even if it’s not always easy. “He connects the missions:” I was at the hospital center of Bourges and also at the hospital center of Ambert. I was not staying in a luxury hotel, but in the rooms of the boarding school. We don’t roll on gold. Gaël recounts a France of isolated, remote territories… but which need doctors. “I feel useful when I work in a hospital in the Jura. Afterwards, it’s not easy not to have a restaurant 10 kilometers away. He has done his accounts and is thinking regarding the new conditions of the Rist law. “I think I will still accept their prices. I don’t have much choice. But I will no longer go to certain places that are too difficult, if the price is too low. »
*First name changed.