Standing firm against "policies that trample them," general practitioners in towns and clinics are beginning a ten-day strike on Monday which they predict will be widely followed, planned to gradually escalate and lead to a "total closure" of operating rooms this weekend.
"The practice will be closed from January 5th to 15th," wrote Dr. Julie Galey, a gynecologist and reproductive medicine specialist in Hauts-de-Seine, on Doctolib. "Dr. Justine Dailly will be on strike from January 5th to 15th, like thousands of doctors in France, in reaction to the government's contempt," read a post on the page of a general practitioner in Lyon.
The movement, launched by representative professional organizations, student unions and the younger generation of doctors, begins on Monday with the closure of some practitioners' offices, a reduction in activity or an "administrative strike" for others.
It is expected to intensify over the coming days and lead to a "hard strike", "the shutdown of operating rooms" in clinics from January 10 to 14, culminating in a demonstration in Paris on Saturday afternoon.
"The movement will be extremely well supported," asserts the CSMF union. On the private practice side, an online platform launched by the Jeunes Médecins Ile-de-France union had registered 15,600 strike declarations by midday on Monday.
– “Continuity of care” –
The strikers are denouncing, among other things, an insufficient social security budget in the face of growing needs, measures allowing the authorities to lower the rates of certain medical procedures "in an authoritarian manner", by "bypassing" social dialogue, or a limitation on prescriptions for sick leave.
They denounce various "political attacks" against their excessive fees – which have increased sharply according to several reports – and still fear the restriction of their freedom of establishment, the subject of texts currently being examined in Parliament.
The Federation of Private Hospitals (FHP), which represents all French clinics, supports the movement.
“Without general practitioners, there are no clinics. We stand in complete solidarity,” asserts President Lamine Gharbi. He also denounces the 2026 freeze on hospital service rates (reimbursed by Social Security), while “501,000 clinics are already operating at a loss.”
The clinics will ensure "continuity of care" for patients already hospitalized, but admissions will be reduced to reach a "total shutdown" on the 10th. "The anesthesiologists will be on strike quite strongly. Without them, no operations" so "I think that 80% of the operating rooms will be closed this weekend," says Mr. Gharbi.
The strike could put the public hospital system under strain, already strained by a peak in winter epidemics.
– “Slowed operation” –
On Monday morning, various doctors, general practitioners or specialists, announced their participation in the strike to their patients by SMS, on social networks or via appointment booking platforms.
This was the case for practices in Corenc (Isère), Montereau-Fault-Yonne (Seine-et-Marne), and Fort Sainghin-en-Mélantois (Nord), AFP observed. Some doctors announced only a few days of strike action or a "slowed" operation, for example in Pratz-sur-Arly and Samoëns (Haute-Savoie), Méricourt (Pas-de-Calais), and a dermatologist in Versailles.
But other practitioners were working normally.
Ten days of strike action, "with rent and bills piling up, I don't know who can afford it," a non-striking general practitioner from the Grand Est region, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP. "Those who can afford it, I'm not too worried about them," he added wryly, noting the "large disparity" in income levels between general practitioners and certain specialists, such as radiologists or radiation therapists.
"Whatever the number of strikers, the important thing is to be able to tell these doctors that I am obviously listening to them," stressed Health Minister Stéphanie Rist on Monday morning on France 2.
In La République du Centre on Sunday, she indicated that she had "taken measures to organize the continuity of care" so that patients "are not in danger" and stressed that she could "resort to requisitions, if necessary".
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