Lionel Gougelot 9:53 a.m., February 9, 2023

This Wednesday, the Minister of Health François Braun announced "to give the possibility to nurses to be able to sign [des] death certificates", to save time for doctors, until then the only ones authorized to produce these documents.

Six regions will be used for experimentation.

A decision that does not convince some health professionals.

An experiment that is already debated.

On Wednesday, during a trip to Valenciennes, the Minister of Health, François Braun, announced that liberal nurses could issue death certificates, in particular to save doctors time.

Until then, only the latter were authorized to sign the death certificate, a compulsory document for the organization of the funeral.

For the moment, the liberal nurses will be able to take care of it in six test regions.

A decision that is debated, especially in the North.

"I do not understand how we can entrust this task to someone who does not have the training"

According to the Minister of Health, this will relieve doctors of an unpaid act during the day, for which they are less and less available.

"We have to listen to the families who have to wait hours before getting a death certificate. It's completely abnormal. So I'm going to give nurses the possibility of being able to sign these death certificates", explained François Braun.

"It's also within the framework of a coordinated exercise. So we're in something that still remains framed, of course."

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A decision that does not convince Jean-Philippe Platel, the president of the Council of the Order of Physicians of the North.

"The death certificate is a medico-legal act. As a doctor, I do not understand how we can entrust this task to someone who does not have the training", he criticizes.

According to him, it would be better to remunerate this act.

"Patients die in nursing homes in particular. There are not many attending doctors left and we are forced to call on outside doctors who will do this act for free. Let's give a fee in connection with this act, and I believe that We'll solve part of the problem."

Moreover, when they are signed at night or on weekends, these death certificates are paid for at 100 euros.

And there, the practitioners respond present.