Veterinary practices will be closed on November 6. Professionals are protesting against the bill which provides for withdrawing the sale of certain antibiotics.
The veterinarians will express their anger on the occasion of the “Day without veterinarians” on November 6th. The offices will be closed and only emergencies insured. They react to the bill to modernize agriculture for 2014. An article wants to prohibit veterinarians from the sale of certain antibiotics. Currently, they prescribe and sell these classes of drugs themselves. The text provides for entrusting pharmacists with this mission.
An “arbitrary decision”
For the National Union of Liberal Practitioners (SNVEL), this bill shows “contempt” for the profession and constitutes an “infringement” of the diploma. “Veterinarians are not and should not be secondary rights holders. Their independence and their ethics do not have to suffer the affront of this restriction, ”thunders the union in a statement.
But the question is not only an ethical one. A significant portion of veterinarians’ income is linked to the sale of drugs. Removing this resource from them amounts to condemning the most fragile establishments to shutting down or inflating their prices. Rates have not increased for 15 years for consultations, but a drop in income could push practitioners to compensate. SNVEL also fears a wave of layoffs in the cabinets. He also predicts dire consequences for caregivers and pet owners. “This will result in the lengthening of the response time in emergencies, an unnecessarily complicated care process, and less availability of treatments for animals. “
Farmers in danger?
The issue of restricting the sale of drugs is a delicate one in rural areas, and more particularly in agriculture. The immediacy of access to treatment would be called into question by this bill. Farms are often isolated. Getting a drug will therefore mean traveling. As farmers are often busy with tight schedules, these additional trips are problematic.
SNVEL also underlines the issue of night emergencies. No pharmacy is open, making it difficult for farmers and vets to get the treatment on time. Predictable consequence: an increase in self-medication for animals on farms.
Politicians are not excluded from this controversy. The president of the General Council of Burgundy, François Patriat, supports the veterinary profession. For him, “the bill for the future for agriculture is the subject of a shocking arbitration which endangers the existence of the network of veterinarians. Under the guise of the fight against antibiotic resistance, we stigmatize a profession which has been at the forefront for years in the fight against the excessive use of antibiotics, ”he wrote in a press release.
Such a mobilization is very rare: it is the first strike of veterinarians for 40 years. In 1974, the demonstrators won their case the day after their action. This time around, they started a petition called Stop Marisol Touraine.
.
