A little more constraints, but no pure and hard coercion: the deputies adopted this Wednesday, June 7 in committee a bill of the majority aimed at "improving access to care", without touching the freedom of installation of doctors.
The subject promised bitter debate. Finally, the text tabled by the Horizons and Renaissance groups passed the stage of the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly without too much trouble. The examination in session, scheduled from this Monday, could however be more eventful.
'Years of extreme tension'
Despite attempts from all benches, rapporteur Frédéric Valletoux (Horizons) has preserved his text from the most radical measures from the transpartisan group led by the socialist Guillaume Garot. Ruled out, therefore, at this stage, the "regulation" to force doctors to settle in the deserts. "A false solution" in "a period of shortage", justified Frédéric Valletoux. To get through the "years of extreme tension" to come, caregivers will be pushed to work together, via an automatic attachment, "unless opposed", of all liberals to the territorial professional health communities (CPTS), these administrative structures supposed to facilitate their coordination at the local level.
Some amendments supported by both the left and the centre, were nevertheless adopted, to regulate financial aid for installation (only one every ten years) and unannounced departures, including dentists and midwives (with a notice of six months). A new "territorial indicator of the supply of care" will also have to be used to "guide public health policies". Blocked, on the other hand, the return of compulsory guards in the evenings and weekends, yet provided by a minority of liberal doctors. But private clinics and their practitioners will have to be more involved in "permanence of care".
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Future caregivers, including nurses, will also be involved, with the prohibition of temporary work at the beginning of their career. A measure dear to the executive, recovered after the censure of the Constitutional Council which had deemed it inopportune in the last budget of the Sécu. The public service commitment contract (CESP) will be extended to all health students, who will be able to benefit from a monthly allowance from their third year of studies, provided they work in an under-endowed area after graduation. Foreign caregivers (outside the EU) will also be called in as reinforcements, with the creation of a residence permit talent-medical professions, valid for up to four years, which the government initially planned to integrate into its draft law on immigration.