Don’t count on her to set foot in the hospital in April. From Monday 3, the date of entry into application of article 33 of the Rist law, Dr. Cécile Chopard will be on strike, for the first time in her life. Full practitioner for seven years, this anesthesiologist chose the interim ten years ago, “to flee a public hospital that has become abusive”, she says.
If the amount she receives for her replacements is far from the staggering rates that we often hear about (€5,000 for 24-hour care, or even €6,000 during the holiday season, the Ministry of health), it is much higher than that defined by the Touraine law of 2016, namely a maximum of €1,170 gross. A tariff that article 33 of the Rist law finally intends to enforce by establishing controls in establishments, which can be prosecuted in the event of an infringement.
34 € net per hour
“Today, far from the excesses described by the ministry, temporary workers are paid an average of €55 per hour, if paid leave is included. With the Rist law, we drop to 34 € net, calculates Cécile Chopard. But we are not talking about a working day but rather twenty-four hours, that is to say a day and a night. Do you find it normal to be paid this price when, at 2 o’clock in the morning, you have to make decisions on which lives sometimes depend? », protests the caregiver, who therefore expects a massive desertion of replacements, estimated at around 10,000 throughout the territory.
According to a survey conducted by the National Union of Hospital Replacement Physicians (Snmrh), of which she is secretary, 70 establishments and a hundred services are likely to be in great difficulty as of Monday. “As during the Covid, hospitals will work in degraded mode. Waiting times will increase, interventions postponed…”anticipates the doctor.
The ceiling increased by 20%
Faced with fears of service closures, the Minister of Health, François Braun, announced on March 27 that the price would finally be raised to a maximum of €1,390 gross for twenty-four hours, or a 20% increase. “Reduced to the hourly net, it comes to 38 or 39 € per hour. This is still very insufficient”decides Dr. Chopard.
While acknowledging that some establishments have been able to adapt to the cap. “In Toulon and Briançon, for example, the legal rate of €1,170 gross is applied, and these hospitals do not seem to have any particular difficulty in recruiting. » No worries either at the Bordeaux University Hospital: “We don’t have interim doctors here,” declare to The cross its director, Yann Bubien.
strike threats
On the side of the incumbent practitioners, concern gave way to anger. Because François Braun’s “gift” to temporary workers goes badly. “As April 3 approaches, there seems to be money to sign contracts for 2 to 3 times the remuneration of a hospital practitioner. But still no money for hospital practitioners,” thus castigates the Snphare (National union of hospital practitioners anesthetists-resuscitators extended to other specialties), which has long demanded a revaluation of the guards. Without « signal fort » of the ministry to reward their daily commitment, the union promises to call a strike…
