Laura Laplaud (interview by Yasmina Kattou) / Photo credits: Pixabay 11:29 a.m., November 01, 2023
As of November 1st, the price of a medical consultation will increase. From now on, you will have to pay 26.50 euros instead of 25 euros to have an appointment with your general practitioner. An increase of 1.50 euros which is far from being enough for the ReAGJIR union.On this November 1st, a few novelties are invited into the daily life of the French. Among them, the increase in medical consultations. You will now have to pay €26.50 instead of €25 to have an appointment with your GP. An increase of €1.50 that also applies to specialist doctors.
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"Community medicine is currently underfunded"
The price of the consultation had not been increased for several years, but this increase is far from sufficient. "The fact is that community medicine is chronically underfunded today. This translates into an obligation to increase the pace of care, to take care of more patients in a reduced time," explains Raphaël Dachicourt, president of the ReAGJIR union (Regroupement Autonome des Généralistes Jeunes Installés et Substitus).
Some doctors are forced to go from one consultation to another in order to "run" their practice. "[We do] 20-30 consultations a day, which leads to a deterioration in the quality of care. It's an obligation because on the current funding and the current pricing, to be able to run the medical business, we are at this point," he continues.
Speaking to Europe 1, Raphaël Dachicourt said that doctors would like to be able to spend more time with patients but that they do not have the means to do so. "You spend 15 minutes, 30 minutes with a patient, it's paid the same way. If we want to make general medicine more attractive today, we need to massively fund community medicine," he concludes.