French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday (6th January) announced a series of health sector measures, following recent calls from healthcare staff for government action.

After two years of the COVID pandemic, French public hospitals – and particularly emergency services – are stretched beyond measure, health professionals’ unions have warned.

Across December and January, general practitioners initiated strike action and took to the streets to demand the price of consultations be raised from the current €25 to €50.

In front of the hospital staff in Corbeil-Essones, in Île-de-France, Macron acknowledged the “problem of attractiveness” of healthcare careers, stating that the challenge of the coming months would be to “succeed in keeping the caregivers who are already in place”.

As part of his plans, Macron said he wants to “reorganise care in the hospital” and “regain a human perspective” by reviewing schedules, giving more time to patients, and increasing access to training.

The president said he also wants to assign a doctor and administrative professional to lead each hospital.

One element of Macron’s investment is a recruitment drive for medical assistants, thereby taking the administrative load off doctors and helping them “gain medical time”. There are currently 4,000 medical assistants working in France, and the French president’s goal is to increase this to 10,000 by the end of the year.

To achieve this goal, the government will increase funding, Macron said, indicating that he has a parallel plan for hospitals to “strengthen the teams at the bedside”, but without giving any details about the amount of money that will be dedicated.

Better access to care

Macron acknowledged the problem of access to care in France, indicating that he wants to “redistribute” health services to relieve emergency services and remedy medical deserts, defined as geographic areas in which it is very difficult to get medical care from a healthcare professional due to the absence of local doctors.

Emergency services in France are experiencing an unprecedented crisis as more than 120 centres have had to close or reduce their capacity due to a lack of personnel, according to the association Samu-Urgences de France (SUdF).

In response, Macron said he is looking into pay rises for night shifts.

For citizens living in medical deserts, Macron said he is seeking to better remunerate city doctors who provide permanent care. Currently, 6 million French people do not have a regular doctor, including 600,000 with chronic diseases, according to the French Union for Free Medicine (UFML).

These 600,000 patients “will be offered a general practitioner before the end of the year” or, failing that, “a treatment team”, promised Macron.

To boost general practitioners’ working conditions, the French president said he intends to increase salaries, remove unnecessary tasks and invest in the development of other health professionals’ skills, to reduce the burden.

The announcement comes in the wake of several days of union action by doctors in protest against poor working conditions, including extended hours and too many patients per doctor.

Macron also criticised patients who miss appointments: “As health no longer has a price for many of our compatriots, it no longer has a value,” he said, without giving further details on government actions.

Between now and June, the Ministry of Health will work on the President’s announcements to see how they can be implemented in hospitals and among patients.

Source: Euractiv.com