Lyon: Thousands protest against regulation of doctors' practice

Several thousand protesters, primarily medical students and interns, marched Tuesday in Lyon and across France against the Garot bill, which aims to control the establishment of doctors to combat the medical desertification. The Lyon procession, which led from Grange Blanche to the Regional Health Agency, attracted between 1,800 participants according to the prefecture and 4,500 according to the organizers.

" Remove the garot, private medicine is suffocating, " proclaimed a banner in Paris from the FMF private doctors' union, whose leaders participated in the demonstration, as did those of other private doctors' unions. " Vocation is not submission ," " Our life is already a sketch, no need to make it a gag ," " Suicidal doctors, patients in the cemetery ," read placards held by the Parisian demonstrators, most of them in white coats.

According to Lucas Poittevin, president of the National Association of Medical Students, " at least 5,000 people " were present in the capital. The students turned out in large numbers because "they are the ones who will be affected by the measures " in this proposed law, he said.

In Lyon, Amin Benkraiem, 22, a fifth-year medical student, felt that the idea of ​​regulating the establishment of doctors was based on a " false premise ," that young practitioners were avoiding certain areas. " Every year, tens, hundreds, thousands of young doctors set up in medical deserts. It's just a problem of numbers; not enough of them arrive ," he said.

The bill initiated by Guillaume Garot (PS) is supported by a cross-party group (from LR to LFI) of more than 250 MPs. It stipulates, among other things, that in areas with the highest medical densities, practitioners will have to wait for a colleague to retire before being able to set up practice there.

The government, hostile to this bill, lit a counter-fire on Friday by presenting its own plan to combat medical deserts. While better received by private practitioners, this plan nonetheless arouses reservations. Doctors are concerned about the flagship measure presented by Prime Minister François Bayrou, which requires practitioners to work up to two days a month of consultations in priority areas.

" Advanced consultations ," outside the doctor's usual office, " should not be an individual obligation " for each practitioner, " it should rather be a collective responsibility ," said Franck Devulder, president of the CSMF union, on Tuesday, speaking at the Paris demonstration.

And for this to work, according to him, " the doctor must only have to put his feet under the table " in his second consultation location, that is to say, he must be able to find an equipped office and a secretariat already installed and financed on site. The doctors opposed to the Garot bill have in any case not managed to convince the patient associations or their families.

Around forty of them, from France Assos Santé to UFC Que Choisir, including APF France Handicap and the National Union of Family Associations, called on MPs on Tuesday to support the text, which will be back in plenary session at the Assembly next week.

" Voting for the Garot PPL means improving access to healthcare for all (...) And all options, including those put forward by François Bayrou, are worth considering, in complementarity, and not in opposition, considering the scale of the needs ," they wrote in a joint statement.

The challenge of " structurally improving access to care (...) goes far beyond corporate interests and the defense of a system that is no longer appropriate ," they added.