By lowering clinical prices, the FHP estimates that the government is depriving itself of the creation of 5,000 jobs to which it had committed.
“What exactly does the government want? See the disappearance of the private hospital sector in favor of the general public? This is the question asked this Thursday by the Federation of Private Hospitalization (FHP) to the Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, in a press release. In a vitriolic letter, the one which represents 1,000 private clinics and hospitals denounces an “unfair” drop in hospital rates for private clinics and hospitals of 2.15% for 2016.
As such, it recalls that the ministerial decree of March 8, which fixes the amounts, brings the clinical prices “below their 2004 level”. An injustice that the FHP resents because it emphasizes that “the prices of the private hospital sector are already 22% lower on average than those of the public”.
Faced with these figures, the Federation does not hesitate to strongly condemn “a policy of slow destruction of private hospitalization on the part of the government which, through an unprecedented set of hostile measures, threatens the sustainability of a hospital sector. ‘excellence which nevertheless makes France’s reputation in the world,’ she writes.
End of the promise to create 5,000 jobs
“We are appalled and appalled by so much political irresponsibility to begin with. Because by lowering the prices of clinics, the government, which nevertheless continues to ask for compensation from companies, is deliberately depriving itself of the creation of 5,000 jobs on which we had committed in our branch. When there are 3.8 million unemployed (category A, DOM-TOM included) in our country, it is nothing more than a political error ”, affirms Lamine Gharbi, president of the FHP.
Maximum tension with hospitals
In this context, the latter is most worried about his sector. He deplores that, “over twenty years (1992-2012), the number of clinics has already fallen by 28%, with in the MCO (medicine-surgery-obstetrics) sector, a halving of the number of establishments (from 1 014 to 542). In comparison, the number of public hospitals only decreased by 12% and that of association hospitals (private non-profit, ESPIC) by 23%, ”he points out. Tensions between private clinics and public hospitals are far from over, he said.
To explain this imbalance, Lamine Gharbi argues that the clinics have been for several years “in a situation of economic strangulation by a deliberate will of the State”. Supporting figures, he indicates that since 2004, while inflation has climbed by 16%, and clinic charges by 56%, their prices have fallen by 1% over twelve years (2005-2016) .
Concerns for patients
Finally, for the FHP, “the consequences of this policy in favor of an outdated hospital-centrism lead to a savage restructuring that is not backed by the health needs of the population, a disorganization of the supply of care in the territories and a decline in patients’ freedom of choice, with for example 30 departments in which there is no longer a private maternity unit, ”the president of the FHP warns.
Clinics stimulate competition between healthcare players, says Lamine Gharbi, “which also benefits patients in terms of improving the quality of care”, he concludes.
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