On Thursday, French family doctors took to the streets of Paris to demand that the authorities improve their working conditions and double the value of health care fees in urban areas.
“In order to avoid ‘health care deserts’ in the countryside, the goverment have ended up saturating the consultations in cities,” physician Alexia Guidez explained, recalling that family doctors based in large towns cannot longer treat patients properly due to lack of resources.
“With current resources, we can no longer adequately treat people,” Alexia Guidez said, recalling that doctors are saving money by recycling the disposable sheets used on consultation tables.
Wearing their white coats, protesters walked from the Pantheon to the French Health Ministry with banners containing slogans such as “We heal you. Heal us” and “Doctors, Not Stooges.”
Initially, doctors unions called for a strike between Dec. 26 and Jan. 2. However, they decided to extend the strike until Jan. 8 due to the government’s lack of answer to their demands.
On Friday, President Emmanuel Macron plans to visit a Parisian hospital, where he is expected to announce new policies to avoid the collapse of the urban health system.
“We will listen very carefully to what he has to say,” the Doctors for Tomorrow leader Christelle Audigie said, stressing the strike will not stop until they get answers to their proposals.
