HASTo make up for the shortage of doctors in our country, some hospitals rely on doctors who obtained their diplomas outside the European Union (EU) and have not yet validated the knowledge verification tests (EVC). The verification of knowledge and proficiency in French language tests (provided for in Articles L. 4111-2 I and L. 4221-12 of the Public Health Code), created in application of the Decree of July 9, 2021, has two objectives: to We welcome doctors from around the world, respecting France’s tradition of hospitality and its desire to enrich knowledge and practices while controlling medical demographics. and to regulate the status of doctors qualified outside the EU and employed in public health institutions, while ensuring that their knowledge and proficiency in French allows them to provide high quality care.
For the 2023 session, more than twenty thousand candidates have registered for the EVC for 2,703 posts offered. It is valued In addition, two thousand to three thousand doctors qualified outside the EU are currently working in French hospitals without having yet validated the EVC.
We, members of the EVC jury 2023 in the field of general medicine, carried out an impartial and objective double correction of the copies. We were unanimously surprised at the low level of knowledge of a significant number of candidates. There were 537 vacancies in general medicine. Of the 2,662 candidates who presented, only 241 achieved an average of 12 on all tests, a threshold that indicates to the jury a minimum level of knowledge to approve their practice. Conversely, due to the academic level of candidates who failed the EVC 2023, it is not possible to remain in their positions. Medical deserts do not justify selling the level of the country’s future doctors, nor the quality and safety of care!
Double standards
The mere fact that doctors qualified outside the EU who have not validated the EVC are allowed to practice in hospitals de facto confirms two-tier medicine. Some of them are recruited as interns and have to take on duties as senior physicians that we would not entrust to interns currently training in France. These skilled workers, qualified outside the EU, are also precariously employed and underpaid in relation to the tasks assigned to them. A doctor who holds a diploma from the second cycle of French medical studies or who obtained it in the EU, but who has not yet obtained a doctorate and who practices in the national territory, would be guilty of illegally practicing medicine. However, successive governments have confirmed this situation by entrusting the health of our fellow citizens to doctors, some of whom have a level of qualifications that has not been confirmed by an objective examination.
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