If this was intended to send a positive signal to the healthcare sector, it didn’t work. Forty-eight hours after new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s first trip to a hospital on Saturday, January 13, skepticism among healthcare workers has only grown. In question: a “communication stunt” is hardly appreciated by a professional world under tension.

Mr. Attal assessed the visit to the Dijon University Hospital in front of the press “An additional 32 billion euros” on the “Five more years (…) investment” provided in the healthcare system. “I will say it, our hospital and our nurses are a national treasure.”he said together with the new Health Minister Catherine Vautrin.

The announcement seemed significant at first glance. Was that news? ” Envelope “ Is this highly anticipated in an industry that has been in crisis for months? The question echoed in the media. Before the Prime Minister’s entourage gives an answer, namely backtracking: These 32 billion euros correspond to that “Increase in the budget for the health sector, which was decided in the last social security financing law”as far as the hospital and city medicine are concerned, said Matignon.

Not quite a lot ” new “, In summary. For the hospital alone, this means an additional 3 billion euros in 2024 compared to 2023, those close to Mr. Attal also said. Accordingly Budget documentsHealthcare spending will increase from 242.2 billion euros in 2022 to 273.9 billion euros in 2027.

“Magical Thinking”

“Misleading communication”, “announcement effect”, “magical thinking”… The reactions were intense. “We cannot present an already approved budget for the coming years as “additional billions””the Interhospital Collective argued in a press release on Sunday, calling for one “Clear political course for the coming years and strong measures to repatriate nursing staff who have left the hospital”.

The enlarged National Union of Hospital Anesthetists-Reanimators also recalled that the development of health expenditure is provided for in the Public Financial Planning Act for the years 2023 to 2027. “We know the solutions, explains Anne Wernet, its president. Physicians’ stay or return to the hospital is not just a matter of compensation; It is also necessary that working time is finally taken into account, that overtime is paid better… All of this really requires additional resources. »

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