They demand “real regularization”.
Around a hundred doctors qualified abroad demonstrated Thursday in front of the Ministry of Health to obtain a lasting improvement in their situation rather than an extension of their temporary authorization to practice, which "keeps them in precariousness" for "only some months ".
The mobilization to support foreign doctors took place today, in front of the Ministry of Health.
Thanks to this mobilization, a delegation was able to be received at the ministry.
Congratulations to this delegation!
And all mobilized to defend our public hospital 🏥🚨 pic.twitter.com/lVM0uZIY20
— Esther (@E47717980) February 15, 2024
Due to the extinction at the end of December of a “exceptional regime” that had been in force for a long time, several thousand practitioners qualified outside the European Union (called Padhue), who have often worked in French hospitals for years under various precarious statuses , were this year forced to pass a selective competition, called “knowledge verification tests” (EVC), to be able to continue practicing.
But the very limited number of places – 2,700 positions open for 18,000 candidates, according to the conference of medical deans – had left a large part of them in the lurch, threatened with losing their position and for some undocumented.
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After an outcry, the executive finally promised to “regularize a number of foreign doctors”, and decided to extend their temporary work authorizations by one year, until they pass the 2024 EVC session.
The circular, received on Wednesday by the union organizations, is "a first step" but "only postpones the problem for a year", denounced Olivier Varnet, representative of Force Ouvrière, who organized this gathering with the CGT, on Thursday. Association of emergency doctors of France and the specialized union Ipadecc.
“Unacceptable”
“The Padhue remain in statuses that we describe as unacceptable”, precarious, poorly paid – generally between 1,500 and 2,200 euros – and “on the condition that they undertake to pass this pseudo-competition, numbering positions far below what is necessary” for hospitals, he lamented.
The unions are demanding that “all Padhue” working in France have the chance to be integrated via “an evaluation on file and not on a competitive examination”.
“We clearly understood that the government is extending us to go through the Olympic Games.
If this continues, we will not work at the Olympics, we will strike and if that is not enough, we will leave, and we will leave the hospital to them,” warned the vice-president of Ipadecc, Halim Bensaidi.
A diabetologist, he has been practicing for five years in Île-de-France under precarious status, but as a senior doctor.
“There are no French people in my department.
I do everything: I prescribe, I see the patients, I note the interns,” he summarized.
“Either we want continuity of care, or we want to destroy the hospital.”