Several hundred self-employed operating room doctors (anesthetists, surgeons, obstetricians) left Paris on Sunday for a symbolic three-day exile in Brussels to protest against the government's health policy.
“We want the government to stop attacking private practice medicine,” said Philippe Cuq, president of the organization Le Bloc, shortly before about twenty buses left Porte Dauphine in Paris for the Belgian capital with the doctors on board.
In Brussels, “we will work to prepare about ten proposals that we want to submit to the Prime Minister upon our return,” he told the press.
“We are waiting for a meeting” with Sébastien Lecornu, he specified, believing that the head of government “is taking care of the farmers who feed the French, but we are taking care of the French.”
According to Dr. Cuq, "1,936 doctors had registered" for this symbolic exile, but "several hundred of them were requisitioned" by the authorities.
This action is part of a broader context of strikes by private practice doctors. Almost all organizations have called for a strike between January 5th and 15th.
They denounce "policies that trample them," including a Social Security budget deemed insufficient, a limitation of sick leave prescriptions, or measures allowing to bypass contractual negotiations between the profession and Health Insurance.
On Saturday, several thousand doctors – 20,000 according to the organizers, 5,000 according to the police prefecture – marched in Paris to denounce an “authoritarian drift” which they believe threatens their “freedom to practice”, calling on Mr. Lecornu to “make proposals” to them.
English 
French