“My name is Moustapha. I graduated from the Faculty of Algiers in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Basically, it's called
re-education
.
I was going to finish my third year of practice in France but on December 31, I was fired.
The ARS says it can no longer hire me because the ministry's temporary decree was ending.
I have a 10-year residence permit, fortunately.
But I'm out of work.
Not even unemployment.
And the most infuriating thing, my former department is desperately looking!”
In front of the Ministry of Health this Thursday, Place Laroque, in the wealthy 7th arrondissement of Paris, around fifty foreign doctors are gathered.
The inter-union organized this mobilization in support of those who are colloquially called
“padhue”
, for
“practitioners with qualifications outside the European Union”
.
Not registered with the order of doctors, these foreign practitioners, who number between 4,000 and 5,000 according to the unions (for 45,500 hospital practitioners in France), carry out small contracts in hospitals under a precarious status of "
assistant"
or
" associate”
, under the supervision of another doctor.
In his general policy speech at the end of January, Gabriel Attal announced his intention to regularize foreign practitioners active in France, repeating a promise from Emmanuel Macron two weeks earlier.
These foreign doctors
“sometimes hold our healthcare services at arm’s length and we leave them in administrative precariousness
,” lamented the Head of State during his press conference.
In Île-de-France, three padhue are currently under OQTF, according to the unions, who deplore that many of them, who have already worked for several years in France, find themselves without a contract or residence permit.
And this despite the needs.
“We are in the opposite of a public health policy, we are creating unemployed doctors
,” denounced Olivier Varnet, secretary general of the National Union of Hospital Doctors FO, this Wednesday.
“By being kicked out, they lose their right to stay.
So you have padhue in France who work at the APHP, and who are afraid to leave their homes because they don't have papers!”
Few places
This is the case of Paul*, a Cameroonian pharmacist working in a medium-sized town in Haut-Rhin.
The 26-year-old young man, who arrived last August, had applied following the advertisement of a pharmacist who was unable to fill the position.
His 6-month internship has come to an end and his residence permit ends on February 28.
His manager would keep him well;
but the regularization process is an administrative crossroads.
“At the end of the internship, you must apply for a new contract, with an amendment signed by the manager.
You can only renew twice, at the end of which you have to return to the country if you don't have the EVC
.
EVCs?
“Knowledge tests
,” explains Paul.
This competition has been organized every year by the ministry since 2021 to judge the competence of padhue and admit them according to specific quotas in each sector.
A sort of
numerus clausus
for already trained foreign doctors.
Hadjeera, a young mother from Oran and practicing in a hospital in Seine-Saint-Denis, deplores an examination that is too strict and random.
Elisabeth Pierson / Le Figaro
Except that places are expensive.
For pharmacy, 300 candidates presented themselves in 2023, for eight admitted.
If the Cameroonian manages to pass this stage, he will have to undergo an evaluation again by his manager, before submitting an administrative file to the Order of Physicians.
Something to be discouraged about.
Why does Paul still want to face this administrative paperwork?
“Cameroon is my country, I would like to return there… but here there is a real need for personnel
,” argues the man whose file was studied by the French embassy in Cameroon, then by the Ministry of the Interior, before he sets foot on French soil.
“On a daily basis, people complain about the lack of care, but do not accept that foreigners do the job
,” he regrets.
A random exam
Many department heads, particularly in Île-de-France (where two thirds of the padhue are located) assert that their service would collapse without this welcome reinforcement.
“They go where no one wants to go
,” describes Doctor Djamel Sifi, head of the geriatric department in Seine-et-Marne, who came to demonstrate out of
“solidarity
. ”
In his department, three out of five doctors are foreigners.
“And I’m going to recruit a fourth.
Because since people retired two years ago, this is the only alternative we have found to temporary workers.
It must be said that for the hospital, it is much cheaper… a padhue is paid 1600 or 1800 euros per month, while the temporary worker can ask for up to 12,000 euros.”
Read alsoMedical deserts: doctors refuse to take the blame
Unanimously, the padhue present before the Ministry of Health affirm that the EVC is random and too strict for people who have already been practicing their profession for several years.
Doctor Ouassila Nessigha, general practitioner at Gisors hospital, in Eure, does not understand why she was not admitted.
Present in France since 2009, and of French nationality, her diploma in geriatrics from the Batna Institute of Medicine, in Algeria, condemns her to the status of
“attached associate practitioner”
.
“I sign each time for a trial month, then 2 months, then 6, or even 9 since the ARS increased the maximum duration
,” explains this mother, surrounded by her three children who are holding signs at the hand.
Extended until September 30, 2024, the practitioner does not know what will become of her afterward.
Doctor Ouassila Nessigha, general practitioner at Gisors hospital, in Eure, came with her children.
Elisabeth Pierson / Le Figaro
“They think we don’t have the level. Whereas in practice, we validate and postpone chemo, like any senior. SO ?"
, squeaks Hadjeera, a young veiled mother from Oran and practicing in a hospital in Seine-Saint-Denis.
The young woman regrets random tests, with quotas decided arbitrarily, which give no credit to the experience accumulated in the field.
In her service, among the five padhues, only one passed the EVC.
The same goes for Yasmine, pharmacist, from Kabylia.
“The competition was based on chemotherapy sectors, I, who am purely clinical, got 12.7 in technique but 7 in practice
,” she says, disappointed.
Currently in Bichat, in the 18th arrondissement of the capital, Yasmine has a series of contracts at AP-HP,
“from 6 months to 6 months, from hospital to hospital”
.
“As soon as a French assistant arrives, I am politely dismissed
,” she squeaks.
“In January 2023, I went on maternity leave, and it was the intern that I trained myself who took my place.
Now, all the hospitals I've been to call me to tell me they have a need, but it's always the same thing: “we'll take you while we wait for...”.”
For the unions, the Prime Minister's announcements must be followed by action, as a matter of urgency.
“Let this government intention become effective!”
, they urged in a press release.
Their demands: the reintegration, renewal, maintenance and extension of padhue contracts, as well as
“zero OQTF through prefectural regularization”
.