Europe 1 with AFP 17:07 p.m., January 15, 2024

Hospital unions denounced on Monday a misleading "PR stunt" after Gabriel Attal's statements on a future "investment" of "32 billion more" over five years for health, an increase "already planned" and "insufficient" in view of inflation, according to them.

On a visit to Dijon University Hospital on Saturday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal described the hospital as a "national treasure" and told the press that it would cost "an additional 32 billion euros" over the "next five years (...) investment" in the health care system.

Matignon then quickly clarified things: these 32 billion correspond to the "increase in the budget of the health branch which was adopted in the last law on the financing of social security".

"There's nothing new"

Clearly, the figure does not correspond to a new announcement, but just a reminder of the evolution of health expenditure (National Health Insurance Expenditure Target, including hospitals but also community medicine), as provided for by the public finance programming law. Several trade unions denounced the impression left by Mr. Attal's remarks.

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"There is nothing new (...) and it is already accepted that this programmed increase in the health budget will be insufficient, as the natural increase in health spending is higher," the anaesthetists' union SNPHAR-E said in a statement on Monday.

In a press release, the Federation of Workers' Force Public Health Services also called for people to be "wary of PR stunts". "32 billion: look for error or deception," FO writes, recalling that the government planned in its budget to "make savings" compared to the natural growth of health spending.

Public hospitals awaiting arbitration, according to professionals

In front of the cameras, "Gabriel Attal announces 32 billion, and his spokeswoman adds: we have already given them. What do they think we are?" said Jean-François Cibien, president of the Action Praticiens Hôpital coalition. "It's just 'PR'. What we want is social dialogue, details of investments, a clear roadmap," he said.

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The president of the Hospital Federation of France Arnaud Robinet, which brings together public hospitals, recalled that in the short term, public hospitals were still "waiting for major arbitrations, without which (their) 2024 budget is already insufficient". In particular, the FHF expects inflation compensation for 2023 and a refund of around €800 million due to budget under-execution in 2023.