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A year after the announcement in 2018 by the Prime Minister of a reform of the French health system, the text of the draft law on its reorganization was presented to the Council of Ministers. A clarification of the missions of the health establishments and important changes for the future doctors are expected if the law is adopted.
The health bill proposes significant changes that are intended to fundamentally transform the health care system. First major change: the reorganization of local hospitals. This measure is the central issue of the bill. Specifically, it plans to completely revise the hospital card, because the missions of French hospitals are not clearly defined in France. Between a local hospital, a health house and a general hospital, the vagueness reigns in terms of missions. The bill therefore seeks to clarify this.
The means put in place
The bill gives the government the power to revise the hospital card by prescription. For this, the text first proposes to label between 500 and 600 local hospitals by 2020. These institutions will not practice surgery and will not have maternity, but will have to refocus on general medicine, geriatrics and rehabilitation. The project also gives the State the means to modify the authorization rules for care activities and equipment endowments such as MRIs. This reorganization also provides for the strengthening and coordination of liberal medicine. The government plans to fund 1,000 territorial professional health communities by 2020. The goal is to promote the provision of consultations without appointments, and thus to relieve hospitals and emergency services.
Deletion of the numerus clausus
The numerus clausus is the competition that limits the number of students admitted to the second year of study of medicine or pharmacy. It will be eliminated at the start of the school year 2020. With the end of the numerus clausus, the number of students in the second and third year will be determined by the universities, according to their capacities and the needs of the territory. They will also set their own admission goals in grade 4, but under the control of the Ministry of Health.
The stated goal is to increase by 20% the number of doctors trained. However, orders will set the conditions for checking skills to ensure they are up to date. The text presents this measure as a means of diversifying the profiles of future doctors by promoting bridges between university courses.
Some reservations
The text presented in the Council of Ministers this Wednesday, February 13 should be debated in Parliament to be adopted this summer. However, some health professionals are wondering how all the measures announced will be funded without increasing the budget allocated to health.
Patrick Bouet, President of the Order of Physicians highlights some inaccuracies in the text he hopes to evolve that will be examined in Parliament. According to the president of the Order, the responsibility of the parliamentarian is to hear all the elements to rewrite a text if it is not precise and clear from the start.
And then the mayors of small and medium towns are afraid to see the offer of care be reduced on their territories. Which, without a doubt, will provoke debates in the coming months.