Analysis laboratories on strike again, the mobilization promises to be very popular in Toulouse
The analysis laboratories will be on strike again tomorrow December 1st and until Saturday December 3rd. The is renewed at the call of four unions and it could harden if the State continues to turn a deaf ear. The mobilization promises to be massive in Toulouse where the city laboratories should remain closed.
At the call of four unions, medical biologists will be on strike from 1uh to December 3. During a first mobilization last November, they had tried to have the negotiations with the government and the CNAM evaluated, under “of the Covid period war effort“
The overall envelope proposed by the profession reaches 685 million euros over four years, apparently does not suit the government which suits according to the alliance of medical biology (ABM) its decision “to punish the sector by maintaining the economy of more than a billion euros until 2026”. Industry professionals talk about “sacrifice of local laboratories and the health of the French”.
According to Laurent Escudié, president of the laboratory Ceballiance in Toulouse and a member of the national union of biologists, “if the State confirms this position, 400 sites will close in France, i.e. 10% of laboratories”.
A standoff is engaged
The president of the Céballiance laboratory, Laurent Escudié affirms it: “We have really been heard by the authorities. Today we have the feeling of going around in circles, the feeling that we are being made to pay for all of Covid for the past two years”.
The biologist explains that “thehe biologists and all the collaborators did not ask for this policy, they assumed it. We played our role and showed total commitment to this crisis. Today we are being asked to repay sums that would have been earned on this crisis. But the crisis has cost the laboratories dearly, investments and recruitments. The only answer we have from the authorities is: we are going to lower your budgets in a sustainable way, not on the Covid, but on your city activity”.
The government turns a deaf ear
Laurent Escudié recalls that the profession has made a counter-proposal”which goes in the direction of what we were asked to know, namely a lasting decline in our routine activity. We accepted, we took a big step on a drop in our city and Covid activity. And it is this city activity that it is imperative to preserve for the maintenance of our profession”.
This routine activity is a real subject for the future of the profession and for patients as well. We are first-line players in access to care, we have a network throughout the territory. It’s a radical change in our model based on a simple reduction in our budget and it will significantly impact the quality of service and it will certainly lead to the closure of laboratories. And the most affected will be located in rural areas.”
The first strike movement was closely followed last November by professionals in the sector. “I am also convinced that it will be tomorrow“. The four unions urging the city laboratories to draw the curtain on the 1uh to December 3.
The Céballiance city laboratories will be closed, assures us Laurent Escudié. “We are going to be careful that the impact does not cause difficulties for certain patients. Laboratories attached to healthcare establishments, of the clinical type, will continue their activity in connection with emergencies”.
Professionals feel “talk to a wall” and without a concrete response from the government, the movement could harden. Tomorrow a press conference of the alliance of medical biology (ABM) will take place at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.