SOS Medicins doctors to strike

GETTING an emergency home appointment with a doctor this weekend will be more difficult than normal, after SOS Medicins announced it will “suspend operations” across France for 24 hours from 8am on Sunday, kickstarting a new week of protests by medical workers.

The company, which operates a 24/7 GP call-out service and whose doctors are specially trained to deal with medical emergencies, said it had made its decision in protest at the decision made by regional health officials in Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Lorraine to stop on-call doctor services between the hours of midnight and 8am.

Anyone in need of urgent medical attention has been advised to call 15 for the emergency services, or head to the A&E department of their nearest hospital.

SOS Medicins’ Dominic Nerdy described the decision of the two departments as “aberrant”, and said that he feared similar decisions could be made by other local health organisations if they were granted more powers as suggested in the controversial new proposed health bill, or as they become larger when the number of regions in France is cut later this year.

He said: “There must be a doctor who can go see the children, the elderly, or people who are suffering at night, so they do not have to call an ambulance at three in the morning to then spend four or five hours sitting in A&E" at a cost, "four to five times higher than sending an on-call doctor to the home”.

He said that the organisation had written an open letter to President Francois Hollande demanding that he intervene, after attempts to engage health minister Marisol Touraine were “ignored”.

A health ministry spokesman said that a number of discussions involving SOS Medicins had taken place and insisted that the issue that has sparked the dispute is limited to the two departments.

Private medical practitioners are set to strike from Monday. SOS Medicins warned it would take further action if necessary.

Photo: Ambernectar 13