Health Minister Agnès Buzyn promised on Monday to devote "more than 750 million euros" between 2019 and 2022 for the "refounding of emergency services", affected by an unprecedented strike movement of nearly six months. This sum, which will not be added to the budget already foreseen for health expenditure but will be drawn from existing appropriations, will be used to finance various measures to relieve emergencies by relying more on urban medicine and accelerating supported. But at this stage, the ministry does not provide for the opening of beds or recruitment of staff, as claimed by the strikers.
Twelve measures, including a "care access service" online or by phone
The creation of a "service of access to care" (SAS) is one of the dozen measures presented Monday by the Minister to representatives of hospital staff and leaders, as well as to the unions of liberal doctors and collective Inter-Emergency , at the origin of the strike. Online or by phone, 24 hours a day, this service will refer patients to a city consultation or teleconsultation or to emergencies, possibly via an ambulance.
An amount estimated at 340 million euros, it must be implemented "in the summer of 2020," said Agnès Buzyn, for whom "the time is not the facts but the solutions". In total, 12 measures were announced by Ms. Buzyn, including a reform of emergency funding and the development of protocols for treatment by physiotherapists or pharmacists.
The disappointed unions
The minister "completely refuses to upgrade care professions, there is such a denial of paramedical professions, it's crazy enough", regretted to the AFP Hugo Huon, president of the collective Inter-urgencies at the origin strike movement. He particularly regretted that there is "nothing on the beds, nothing on the posts".
Recalling that the collective must meet Tuesday in the General Assembly, he said that "people are very skeptical" about these ads. For its part, the CGT, which called for demonstrations Wednesday, denounced "disappointing announcements" that will be "effective in the medium or long term".