The main union of surgeons has just called for the end of the strike started on Monday. The claims to defend the fee overruns pass badly in the public opinion.
“Penalize the administration but not the patients “. It is by this formula that Dr. Philippe Cuq, co-president of the Bloc, the main union of surgeons, justified the decision to end the strike started at the beginning of the week. “We cannot continue our movement (…) because, after five days of cessation of activity, this movement harms patients “, adds this doctor. At the beginning of the week, the evaluations carried out by the professsion indicated a rate of closure of operating theaters of 75% in the clinics.
But for all that, the instigators of this large protest movement do not intend to stop the fight. The action plan presented by Philippe Cuq plans to initiate a legal appeal against the agreement signed in October on excess fees. The Bloc, which had targeted mutuals during the strike, also wants to publish a guide on the benefits of complementary. Finally, the union is planning a new rally in December.
Surgeons are therefore returning to operating theaters without having obtained the slightest concession from the public authorities. Admittedly, an extension of the strike would have, by consequence, created a situation of congestion, even saturation in the hospitals.
But above all, this strategy would have led to decay. Unlike the interns, the specialists’ strike is unpopular. According to a BVA survey carried out for Les Echos, only 35% of those questioned support the cause of liberal doctors. And 58% consider that the text on fee overruns is a “good agreement “. In times of crisis and with an increasingly large segment of the population experiencing financial difficulties in seeking treatment, the defense of fee overruns only reinforces the image of specialists as well-off. Without the support of their patients and contesting an agreement approved by representatives of the profession, the strikers had no choice but to resume their activities.
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