It is a commitment from Emmanuel Macron: “The 600,000 patients with a chronic disease will be offered a treating doctor before the end of the year”, promised the President of the Republic. But the debate is off to a bad start. The medical unions, unanimously, decided to boycott the working meeting scheduled for Thursday on this subject with the Minister of Health, François Braun.
Denouncing a “communication plan”, the doctors will not “support this display policy and expect strong actions to meet the needs of professionals and the population”, indicated the five representative unions (CSMF, FMF, SML, MG France, UFML) and that of young doctors (Reagjir), Monday, in a joint press release.
“The minister is doing what he can with great energy, but he is caught between Bercy and the Élysée, explains Dr. Franck Devulder, president of the CSMF and gastroenterologist in the Marne. We are told that we need to see more patients, but taking care of patients with long-term illness (ALD), therefore heavy, at 25 euros per consultation, is not possible. This does not mean that we do not want to take charge of them, but that the government must provide the means.
While negotiations with Medicare on the consultation fee ended in failure in March, doctors are still demanding an increase in their fees. Negotiations are due to resume in early July, but the room for maneuver looks slim as Bruno Le Maire announced 10 billion euros in savings, partly on health.
On the other hand, doctors believe that the president’s promise is based on skewed data. “Many chronic patients are treated in oncology courses or in dialysis centers for kidney failure. They are therefore well followed, without necessarily having a doctor, observes D Sophie Bauer, president of the SML and surgeon in Melun (Seine-et-Marne). The ministry does not want to give us the real figures, because it is the pretext to impeach us.
