Posted Oct 27, 2022 5:55 PMUpdated on Oct 27, 2022 at 6:41 PM
Emmanuel Macron scored points with liberal doctors. To fight against medical deserts, the President of the Republic promised, Wednesday evening on France 2, a financial boost to encourage retired doctors to work. A measure welcomed by the profession, just like the statements of the Head of State on the remuneration of night work in the hospital.
Doctors who retire will be able to “continue their activity and keep all the income that is theirs for them, without paying new pension contributions”, indicated the Head of State. The measure should make it possible to partially respond to the problem of the 6 million French people who have no attending physician.
12,000 doctors in combined retirement employment
Announced at a time when the overhaul of general medicine studies is causing a stir, the exemption is welcomed by the liberals. This “commitment is vital to maintain access to care in certain territories”, welcomes the Union of Liberal Physicians (SML).
The measure may seem attractive but “we fear that colleagues will retire more quickly to combine retirement employment”, delays Isabelle Domenech Bonet, member of the MG France union. “We would like to have more means for doctors in activity, to have medical assistants or the help of nurses”.
Deputies had seized on the question of the cumulation of employment and retirement of doctors during the debates on the draft budget for Social Security (PLFSS). “More than 12,000 doctors are in cumulative retirement employment and, below 70 years, 80,000 of them are retired”, had thus defended the deputy Philippe Juvin (Les Républicains) in committee. The budget rapporteur had referred the debate to that on pension reform.
However, before committing its responsibility once again to the PLFSS on Wednesday evening, the government finally promised to exempt retired doctors who work for a year from contributions. Asked about this time limit, the office of the Minister of Health, François Braun, suggests that the device has every chance of being permanent. The shortfall for the pension fund will be compensated, he assures.
Removal of the waiting period
The budget should also abolish a six-month waiting period in the event of returning to work after retirement and abolish the ceiling on the accumulation of activity and retirement income for health professionals in areas where the supply of care is insufficient. So many derogations already applied during the Covid-19 crisis.
Finally, the government wishes to extend until 2035 the system allowing doctors and nurses to work until the age of 72 in public health establishments.
Revaluation of night work
Pressed to respond to concerns about the saturation of hospital services, the head of state also defended on Wednesday the “emergency package” deployed this summer to help emergencies get through the summer break. He notably underlined the interest of “paying better at night and weekends”, a measure adopted this summer on a temporary basis.
The statements of the Head of State have not escaped the notice of the French Hospital Federation, which “urges that the increases in on-call and on-call duty and night work in force this summer be extended without delay, for the whole winter. , and that they are financed”. It is about the attractiveness of hospital positions for the federation. “It has to be sustainable if we want to correctly apply the essential framework of the interim in the spring”, estimates Arnaud Robinet, the boss of the FHF.
The government promised to release 150 million euros in emergency for the services in tension in the hospitals a few weeks ago and assured that it was going to extend certain measures decided this summer like the increase in the remuneration of the doctors of city which treat unintended patients. The Ministry of Health, however, remained discreet about the extension of the revaluation of guards and nights.