Hospital doctors, who work on-call shifts during the summer to ensure hospital operations continue during the holidays, are worried that the increase in their pay, promised for July 1, will not be forthcoming, unions said Tuesday.
"Has the government forgotten its commitment to a temporary increase in on-call duty scheduled for July 1, when this increase should have been effective since 2024?" asked the unions Actions Praticiens Hôpital, Avenir Hospitalier and Confédération des pratiques hospitaliers.
"We are still waiting for the text that will finally validate this recognition of the commitment of hospital practitioners for their night and weekend work," they said.
Hospital doctors are on call at home and can be called by their department at any time for remote monitoring or to go to the hospital for an intervention.
These on-call duties are now paid by fixed rates which can vary depending on the establishments and their organization, from 40 euros (basic rate for a night on call) to 190 euros (maximum rate when travel has been involved).
The promised revaluation is 30 or 50% depending on the case.
It was decided by François Braun, Minister of Health in the Borne government. But due to government instability, the measure was never implemented, despite its inclusion in the 2024 Social Security budget.
After hospital practitioners filed a strike notice in the spring, the government finally promised to publish the necessary decrees – not yet published – to make the increase effective from July 1.
In their press release, the unions also called for the "immediate opening" of a working group on doctors' additional working hours.
According to them, the working hours of hospital doctors beyond 48 hours per week (the maximum regulatory threshold) are paid less than their hours during ordinary working hours.
The demands of hospital doctors illustrate the tension in a healthcare system faced with an inexorable increase in its expenditure and deficit.
Among the liberal professions, doctors, physiotherapists, dentists, and pharmacists demonstrated on July 1st to denounce the freeze on duly scheduled price increases, due to the slippage in health spending in the first months of the year.
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