French Doctors on strike

[NormanH]

You may notice in the news that there is a strike on at the moment, which concerns Doctors who practise 'dépassement d'honoraires ', a charge over and above the basic tariff of the Sécurité Sociale, and also young hospital internernes who want to protest that their right to work wherever they want is being threatened by the recent agreement reached by the Government and the health unions.

http://www.lemonde.fr/sante/article/2012/11/12/greve-des-chirurgiens-et-des-internes-de-nombreux-blocs-operatoires-fermes_1789000_1651302.html

There was a good discussion about this last night on C'est dans l'air a programme which often has a good mature discussion on the issues of the moment, and which rather contradicts the reputation of French TV as being all game shows..

http://www.pluzz.fr/c-dans-l-air.html

[idun]

Also well reported, including a good 'reportage' on France 2 news the other night.

[Gardian]

[quote user="NormanH"]You may notice in the news that there is a strike on at the moment, which concerns Doctors who practise 'dépassement d'honoraires ', a charge over and above the basic tariff of the Sécurité Sociale, [/quote]

We were at Montpellier CHU yesterday and there were loads of scruffy banners around to that effect.

Happily, the Professeur de Neurologie who saw Mrs G was disinterested in the whole business.  But then he charges the basic tariff !!

BTW, his fee is €41 for a 30 min consultation (its usually less than that, but no matter) and the hospital takes half of that for the facility and then he pays his tax.  I guess that leaves him with €15-ish.  Nearly nine years ago in the UK, the fee was £90 or so.  The Prof says that when he meets his pals from the UK at international conferences, they nearly die laughing at his fees. 

[idun]

There are plenty of 'l'oreal' doctors in France who charge a lot of extra money.

[NormanH]

The professeurs in the CHUs (and at my cancer Unit, which is affiliated) are on a basic salary, and count as the "good guys" in my book.

The ones on strike are mainly in the private cliniques, but there are also the internes as I mentioned who have a different grievance about freedom to work where they want to.

In the programme I linked to the good point was made that there is enough money in the system, it is just allocated badly.

For example medical transport eats up a massive amount (I think 2 BILLION was mentioned), while surgeon's fees have stuck at the same level for years.

[Gardian]

[quote user="NormanH"]For example medical transport eats up a massive amount (I think 2 BILLION was mentioned), while surgeon's fees have stuck at the same level for years.
[/quote]

Funny you should mention that Norman, because we were only talking about it on the way home yesterday.

The round trip to Montpellier for us is 240 kms. Its no hardship because we make a bit of a 'day out' of it, with lunch in the city before taking the tram out to the hospital. When we first started having to go there though, our GP offered a taxi upfront which we politely declined. For that distance though, I shudder to think what the cost to the state would be - my guess would be in the region of €500.

Our neighbour had two round trips to Grenoble when he had an ankle operation a year or two back - I think he told me that the cost was €1200-ish for each trip. Add to that local daily physio for about 3 weeks (about €50 per day) and you can see how the spend racks up. Oh and BTW, he could perfectly easily have been taken by someone in the family and saved those costs.  

[NormanH]

I have to take the transport, as I can't drive and no longer have a car, but do feel that it is money going out of the budget which would be better used in the hospital

The problem starts with the closing of local hospitals and grouping services into centres of excellence.

I can see why this is done, and I have benefited from the expertise, but when I had 40 round trips for radiotherapy the transport must have cost as much as the treatment.

At the time I calculated that the Sécu could have bought me a second-hand car, or paid for me to stay in a small hotel 4 nights a week more cheaply than the costs of the VSL..

By the way, you are entitled to claim back some of the costs even if you use your own car.