" It is not possible.
» The president of the French Hospital Federation (FHF) Arnaud Robinet rejects the budgetary restrictions requested by the State from public hospitals.
“The government is asking the public hospital for 600 million euros in savings in 2024.
This is not possible because ultimately it is the patient who will suffer the consequences,” warns the man who is also mayor of Reims, speaking to RTL this Friday.
Although he recognizes “the difficulties of controlling public money”, Arnaud Robinet believes that hospitals have “already made enough efforts”.
🔴 "We are being asked for 600 million savings. This is not possible. Ultimately, it is the patient who will suffer the consequences."
🎙️ @ArnaudRobinet, mayor of Reims and President of @laFHF is the guest of @amandine_begot in #RTLMatin pic.twitter.com/dcZlSXzQgE
— RTL France (@RTLFrance) March 15, 2024
“We no longer want to know about these recovery plans from the 2010s which lead to a reduction in terms of human resources and in terms of investments”, he defends while recalling that at this period, the activity of the public hospital had increased more than the number of personnel.
Beyond savings, Arnaud Robinet is calling for a programming law “in the image of Defense” to improve the functioning of hospitals.
This could involve “better coordination between community medicine and hospitals”, believes the boss of the FFH, who cites on-call medical homes.
“By telling the French that health is not free (
the Minister of Health said this on RTL in February
), we risk reducing access to care and having people not seek care” , he judges.
The public hospital has been suffering for many years, plagued by a crisis in emergency services and a shortage of caregivers.
The State is tightening its belt
On January 13, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal guaranteed “an additional 32 billion euros” for the health system in “the next five years” and assured the continuation of a “massive investment” for the public hospital, qualified of “national treasure”.
An announcement which was not reassuring, with some doctors seeing it as a communications operation.
This envelope actually corresponds to “the increase in the budget for the health sector which was adopted in the last Social Security financing law”, we were told.
Less than a month later, on February 18, Bruno Le Maire announced a vast plan of budgetary restrictions, aiming to save 10 billion euros, half of which was due to the cancellation of public policies.
Objective: to hold the public deficit to 4.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024, compared to a growth forecast lowered to 1%.