The Minister of Social Affairs and Health Marisol Touraine hoped to achieve one in two outpatient operations. A recent report showered its ambitions and was more realistic.
Cold shower for the hopes of Marisol Touraine. The Minister of Social Affairs and Health posted an ambitious goal last April: to achieve 50% of outpatient operations by 2016, and save 10 billion euros in 3 years. In a confidential report revealed by Point, the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) and the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) are much less optimistic.
Maximum 5 billion euros
The current pace of development of outpatient surgery will not be enough to achieve the government’s objectives, slices the Igas. The authors of this report even underline “the absence of significant inflection” in the growth of this care option between 2007 and 2013. On the price side, the results are not more positive: the alignment of prices between hospitalizations complete and outpatient “seems to have more accompanied than triggered the development of outpatient surgery,” they say. It will therefore be necessary to step up the pace, and not just a little.
As for the 10 billion euros in savings announced by the minister, little chance of reaching them, concludes the report of the Igas and the IGF. Outpatient surgery should extend, at most, to 64% of stays by 2018. Far from the 80% which served as the basis for the calculation of Marisol Touraine … and far from the savings envisaged. The Court of Auditors estimated them at 5 billion euros.
10% of patients excluded
This should consolidate the opponents of this measure, who strongly criticized the announcements of Marisol Touraine last April. The association of accident victims, the FNATH, had expressed “concerns for people whose state of health may be fragile and who require longer hospitalization. “The report from the Igas and the IGF confirms this: 1 in 10 patients cannot be treated on an outpatient basis” for medical reasons. “
The CGT, for its part, feared that the measures would worsen the situation of hospitals. Here again, the Igas seems to confirm these concerns: it provides savings in 3 phases. The first will consist of eliminating hospital beds. The second, “achievable in the medium term” will concern productivity gains “linked to the operation of an outpatient surgery unit. “The third, much less positive,” assumes the disappearance of surgical activity in establishments where the development of outpatient surgery makes it almost impossible to maintain full hospitalization activity. This will result in the closure of operating theaters and related services whose activity is low. The announcement should be badly received by patient associations.
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