Amid the crisis in the health sector, Macron will unveil “very concrete steps” to caregivers this Friday

The President of the Republic travels to Essonne to convey his wishes to the nanny – his first – in a tense context, between the strike of liberal doctors, an impending biologist and three epidemics of Covid-19, flu and bronchiolitis.

Will Emmanuel Macron’s “very concrete” announcement live up to promises of “refoundation” of a “breathless” health system? However, the head of state was eagerly awaited during his wish to nanny this Friday at a hospital in Essonne.

“The President of the Republic will provide courses to caregivers”, to enable them to “find meaning in their profession” and facilitate “access to care” for French people, according to the Elysée. He will unveil “very concrete steps, with a clause for proper and closed review to ensure their implementation”, the president added, without elaborating on their content.

“Deliquescence”

In a sign of the priority given to crises affecting hospitals but also the city’s medicine, this is the first time since he arrived at the Elysée in 2017 that Emmanuel Macron dedicated a special welcoming ceremony to “health, hospital and liberal players”.

For the occasion, he went to the Sud Francilien Hospital Center (CHSF) in a suburb of Paris. Accompanied by Health Minister François Braun, he had to visit a pediatric emergency, experiencing extreme tension like nowhere else in France in recent months.

Her announcement was eagerly awaited by staff who continually lashed out at the “failure” of the offer of care, with its extraordinary emergency and lack of caregivers, against the backdrop of three winter epidemics of Covid-19, flu, and bronchiolitis.

“Some Speed”

In a rare joint press release, the order and doctors’ union outlined Thursday, ahead of a “political decision”, their red line by asserting “against drugs with some speed” that would not respect their role as “conductors”. from the system.

Emmanuel Macron’s first term was marked, after the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, by the “Ségur de la santé”, with 12 billion euros per year to provide better salaries to nurses and 19 billion investment in healthcare hospitals. , his “My Health 2022” plan has implemented his philosophy, with the abolition of the “numerus clausus” which limited the number of medical students.

“It takes us about ten years to train a doctor”, and therefore we will have to live with the current shortages for some time, argued the president’s entourage today to justify the need to “intensify this transformation”.

Several hotbeds of discontent

During his campaign for re-election in the spring, Emmanuel Macron also made healthcare one of the two “big projects” of his second five-year term, along with schools. He has realized that it is necessary to “go further, faster and stronger”, particularly by strengthening prevention, “simplification of hospitals”, “access to emergency care” and the fight against medical waste.

François Braun, when appointed in July, even spoke of the “overcrowded health system”. However, despite several immediate measures and budget extensions decided in recent months, the crisis continues to escalate. And the centers of discontent multiplied.

Thousands of liberal doctors demonstrated on Thursday in Paris, the culmination of a strike that started the day after Christmas to demand a doubling of consultations, from 25 to 50 euros.

But eager to quell social fires, especially as it mobilizes against imminent pension reforms, the government is taking a tough stance on these strikers. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Tuesday it was “absolutely irresponsible” to strike over the holiday, increasing pressure. hospital.

“Inaction”

Its Minister of Health said on Thursday it was “ready to increase these consultations”, but in return for efforts to allow France to have easier access to doctors, and certainly not the 50 euros it was asking for.

FO-Santé, the second hospital public service union, has in turn called for an indefinite strike starting January 10 to protest the government’s “inaction”. Meanwhile liberal biologists threatened to close their laboratories from Monday.

Will Emmanuel Macron’s speech end this conflict? This is clearly the intention of the Elysée. “We have been in almost permanent crisis management since 2020,” explained one adviser. The aim of the speech is to “get out of this crisis management”.