Health chief opens door to second new rise in doctor fees in France
The cost of seeing your GP will go up to €26.50 this autumn but now this is being referred to as only ‘stage one.’ Unions want it to be at least €30
The upfront cost of going to a doctor in France is already set to rise this autumn, but some are calling for it to be raised even higher
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The upfront cost of seeing a doctor in France could rise even further.
It is already set to increase €1.50 this autumn, which will see the price of an appointment jump to €26.50 for a GP and €31.50 for a specialist.
However, the director of France’s state-run health insurance agency opened the door to a further hike during a recent interview (in French).
Thomas Fatôme, speaking to the newspaper Les Echos, admitted the increase of €1.50 would “only be but one stage” in the process, and that he had “doubtlessly underestimated” the strength of feeling from doctors.
Doctors have said the €1.50 rise is not enough to cover their costs and have called for €30 per consultation just to cover inflation.
Sophie Bauer, president of the independent GP union leSyndicat des Médecins Libéraux (SML), has called for the baseline consultation fee to be €50 and for doctors to be adequately compensated for (and given permission to hold) appointments outside of normal hours.
Jérôme Marty, president of l’Union française pour une médecine libre (UFML), has even called for the baseline consultation fee to be doubled.
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GP union MG France said it believed there would be a significant increase in fixed pay for a GP, as well as an increase in fees.
Jean-Christophe Nogrette, its president, said: “Without an injection in attractiveness [of the profession], parallel practices such as unscheduled care or télécabines [consulting a doctor via a screen in a cabin] will remain more popular than our practice, which must therefore be encouraged.”
France’s health minister said talks with unions will resume "in the autumn".
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Patrick Gasser, co-chairman of specialists union Avenir Spé-Le Bloc, said: “The idea is to map out ways of reaching a new agreement by the end of the year”.
Meanwhile, unions have called for a further unlimited general strike starting on October 13, just as the Senate is set to examine a bill on the geographical spread of self-employed doctors in France.
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