“We are working with the ARS (Regional Health Agencies) and have solutions for the first three weeks of April. There is no service that will close dry, thanks to the mobilization of establishments, doctors” and at the “territorial solidarity”he added.
Since Monday, hospitals can no longer pay temporary doctors beyond 1,390 euros gross for 24 hours. The government has decided to enforce a cap that has existed since 2016 but had never actually been implemented.
A number of interim doctors, who are crucial for many hospitals in small and medium cities, have assured that they will not come to work if they can no longer negotiate their rates.
“We follow the case twice a day, the schedules (of the hospitals) are filled”assured François Braun. “I have no doubt that many temporary workers will return”.
In a tally at the end of last week, the National Union of Hospital Replacement Physicians (SNMRH) identified 167 services “threatened with imminent closure” in a hundred hospitals in France.
Services threatened with closure or operational disruptions are often very sensitive services for local elected officials and the population, such as maternity wards, emergencies or operating theatres.
“There have been abuses of the interim”Mr. Braun said on Monday. “It is a system of commodification of health that must be condemned and that is what I am fighting against”.