A third day of demonstration in the space of three months. Liberal nurses took to the streets this Thursday, to demand in particular an increase in the prices of their actions. “Bleed for treatment, until when?”, “Valletoux, let go of the money”, for example, displayed their signs in the Parisian procession. “For fifteen years, our actions have not been revalued, but as the costs increase, we can no longer cope,” warned this Thursday morning on Franceinfo Gaëlle Cannat, co-president of the “Liberal Nurses” collective. angry”.
On paper, however, the remuneration of independent nurses seems quite comfortable. There is no “salary” scale, since these professionals, more than 80% of whom are women, are paid on a fee-for-service basis. They therefore receive income, on which they pay “very heavy” charges (Urssaf, retirement fund, fuel, software, etc.), representing “50 to 55%” of their income, underlines Ghislaine Sicre, president of the Convergence Nurse union.
This clarification made, there are different estimates of the average remuneration of these white coats. The average profit of a tenured professional hovers around 45,000 euros per year, or 3,750 euros net before tax per month. For example, reference data from Arcolib, the management organization approved by the public finance administration for liberal professions, craftsmen, traders and farmers, shows that a nurse earned an average of 83,660 euros in revenue. in 2022, for an average result of 44,780 euros after payment of charges.
Based on the results of 400 practices selected from the 7,800 it supports, the Fiducial company’s observatory on independent nurses (2023 edition) results in a slightly higher result (47,706 euros per year, or nearly 4,000 euros per month). As for INSEE, its latest data dates from 2017: the national statistics institute estimated the monthly income of self-employed nurses and midwives at 3,860 euros per month. For all these estimates, we are of course talking about pre-tax income. In comparison, nurses working in public or private health establishments received on average a net salary of 2,449 euros per month in 2020, according to the most recent figures from Drees, the statistical service of the Ministry of Health.
But what the 135,000 self-employed nurses in France highlight is that their income is increasing very little, unlike inflation. According to Arcolib data, their average result even fell by 7 points between 2021 and 2022. “In ten years, we have lost 25% of purchasing power,” laments Ghislaine Sicre. The president of Convergence Nurse also emphasizes that, although liberal professionals seem to earn a rather good living, their constraints are very strong. “We work between 12 and 13 hours a day, we can start very early in the morning and finish very late in the evening, we work on weekends and public holidays and we are obliged to ensure continuity of care”, lists- she said. Thus, its union calculated that if liberal nurses worked 35 hours per week, their income would be 2,000 euros per month.
On Thursday, the professional organizations were finally received by the Minister Delegate in charge of Health, Frédéric Valletoux. The tone upon exit was mixed: “It went well. We are satisfied to have been able to interact directly with him,” first declared the co-president of the collective organizing the event, Gaëlle Cannat. If there is “no more money in the coffers”, the minister promised “that our demands would be quickly analyzed by a working group, in which we will participate”, added the representative.
