French family doctors start a week-long strike to demand better wages

Dec. 26 () –

French family doctors have started a week-long strike on Monday to demand an increase in the salary per consultation of 50 euros, double the current 25, and other improvements in their working conditions.

The Médicos del Mañana collective has defended the need to improve their working conditions despite the lack of support from the main unions and criticism from the Government, which considers that “this is really not the time.”

The authorities support the triple epidemic of COVID-19, influenza and bronchiolitis that in many cases has saturated hospital emergencies.

“This is really not the time. We are in a terrible situation. It’s not that we are saturated, we are oversaturated,” said the president of the French emergency physicians’ association, Patrick Pelloux. The Minister of Health, François Braun, has also called for “responsibility”.

“Without questioning the right to strike, I call for responsibility because the period between Christmas and New Year is always complicated,” he said in a column published in the press.

Primary care physicians, for their part, claim that they are “essential” because they avoid numerous visits to the emergency room when they are consulted by their patients.