General practitioners and clinics are starting a strike on Monday which they predict will be widely followed, in order to denounce the "insufficient" 2026 social security budget and express their fear of the questioning of their freedom to practice.
The ten-day strike, launched by representative professional organizations, student unions, and the younger generation of doctors, is expected to lead to the closure of practices and the cancellation of surgeries, according to the latter. A demonstration is also planned in Paris on January 10.
"The movement will be extremely well supported," the CSMF union stated.
On the side of general practitioners, Jeunes médecins Ile-de-France (Young Doctors of Île-de-France) has launched a platform to allow striking doctors to declare themselves. More than 14,500 have already registered.
The strikers deplore an insufficient social security budget in the face of growing needs, increased scrutiny of sick leave prescriptions, and measures allowing authorities to arbitrarily lower the fees for certain procedures, bypassing social dialogue. They also fear restrictions on their freedom to choose where they practice, as proposed in legislation currently under consideration in Parliament.
Patients already hospitalized will continue to be treated, but people arriving at the emergency room or maternity ward will, except in life-threatening emergencies, be "transferred to the public hospital," according to the unions.
The strike could therefore put the public hospital system under strain, already strained by a peak in winter epidemics.
"Regardless of 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. "We must continue the dialogue, we must strengthen it. I hope that this movement will last as short a time as possible."
In an interview with La République du Centre published on Sunday, she indicated that she had "taken measures to organize the continuity of care" with the Regional Health Agencies (ARS), establishments and professionals so that patients "are not in danger during this mobilization".
She also stressed that she could "resort to requisitions, if necessary."
For the union of gynecologists and obstetricians (Syngof), this movement is "the consequence of policies that attack doctors", especially sector 2 (contracted practitioners, with excess fees), while the rates reimbursed by Health Insurance have for some "not changed since the 1990s".
The minister, for her part, pointed out that there had been "an exponential increase in these fee overruns in recent years."
"Even if the abuses only concern a minority of doctors, we cannot leave the situation as it is because we have fellow citizens who are forgoing care for financial reasons," she explained.
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