New mobilization in the health sector: several hundred self-employed nurses are expected in Paris on Thursday at the call of a collective and two unions, to request in particular the revaluation of their base rate, unchanged since 2009.
“During Covid, we were told that we played a pivotal role” in care by allowing people to stay at home, recalls Alexandra Veyret, one of the two co-presidents of the collective of “Angry Liberal Nurses” which organizes the demonstration. “But we disappeared from the radar after Covid.”
Salaries still not increased
“We were not part of Ségur”, which increased the salaries of hospital caregivers, “and today, to erase inflation, nurses are forced to choose to practice certain acts rather than others. “, she added.
“In the past I could treat two or three patients an hour, now I have to do four or five. We are in the process of affecting the integrity of our profession,” explains Alexandra Veyret, who receives, for example, 8.83 euros for a blood test at home.
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The basic “brick” of nursing care pricing (AMI, 3.15 euros) has not changed since 2009. Only occasional increases have taken place since that date. Health Insurance has thus increased the flat-rate travel allowance by 25 cents to 2.75 euros (which is added to mileage costs), which had not changed since 2009. It has also reformed the flat-rate rates for daily care for dependent people (BSI), which represents, according to Health Insurance, “an investment of 700 million euros” over the period 2019-2024.
“Anger swells in the ranks”
The demonstration will leave from Place de la Bastille in Paris around 11:00 a.m. to go to the Ministry of Health. Its organizer, the collective of “Angry Liberal Nurses”, was formed in spring 2023 on the basis of a letter written in December 2022 by nurses from Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
The demonstration is supported by one of the three unions representing the profession, Sniil (national union of liberal nurses), and a smaller organization, Onsil (national organization of liberal nurses' unions). The FNI (National Federation of Nurses) and Convergence Infirmière have not called for demonstrations but are also demanding the urgent opening of price negotiations.
“Anger is swelling in the ranks of liberal nurses, who feel despised, abandoned,” wrote the FNI in March in an open letter to Emmanuel Macron published throughout the regional press. There are around 100,000 independent nurses in France.