In Montauban, seven of the twelve doctors in the medical imaging department of the hospital center have a diploma obtained outside the European Union. Their head of department and these practitioners testify to a great success. Reporting.
How do you run a hospital when no French doctor wants to come and practice there? How to bring more care offers to patients? At the Montauban hospital center, an establishment with 900 beds and 200 doctors, the use of foreign doctors is not really new but it is essential today, as one of the main responses to the shortage. Some services, such as medical imaging, are even held at nearly 60% by specialists with this profile.
“Without these doctors, there would have been no one else. Without them, we could not help but close. The Montauban imaging department, which has chosen to support radiologists with the status of PA (attached practitioners “Padhu”) and FFI (working as an intern) in their diploma validation course. Today, they represent around half of the team’s workforce and they are necessary in order to meet the needs of the establishment on the permanence of care with its 900 beds and its 45,000 emergency visits. Very quickly the option of recruiting these foreign doctors on the basis of skills was shared by the head of the medical center and the management of the establishment, “says Jeanne-Nicole Tsogou, head of the medical imaging department at the hospital center. of Montauban.
Out of twelve doctors, the team includes four radiologists who were born in Cambodia and received their initial medical degree in their country of origin.
In a department that carries out some 16,000 scans over the course of a year, more than half of the imaging is therefore entrusted to practitioners with foreign qualifications. Out of twelve doctors, the team includes four radiologists who were born in Cambodia and received their initial medical degree in their country of origin. Ditto for two doctors from Tunisia.
The case of a Gabonese doctor, Nadiha, is even more surprising: she passed her initial medical degree in China and her specialty in radiology in Morocco. She now works as an intern at Montauban and prepares for the skills verification tests (EVC).
“When foreign doctors with a diploma outside the European Union arrive and they are under a contract to act as interns, they work under the supervision of an internship supervisor”, sums up the head of department.
The difficulty then is to integrate the exercise authorization procedure. This first involves a period of acting as an intern, then success in the EVC, two years of consolidation and, finally, registration on the board of the Order of Physicians. “It’s a real obstacle course,” explains Doctor Jeanne-Nicole Tsogou.
They are radiologists at home. To anyone who doubts, I can prove by A+B that they are competent doctors.
On average, between the moment the doctor arrives in France and the date when he can freely practice medicine, it can take four to eight years. “It’s equivalent to going back to school! “explains another doctor from the hospital.
For some, the presence of these foreign doctors can obviously raise the question of skills. “They are radiologists at home. To anyone who doubts, I can prove by A+B that they are competent doctors. The goal is not to open the door to everyone. When they arrive, we assess their skills in order to maintain the excellence of French medicine. I admire their tremendous ability to adapt and integrate professionally, intellectually and culturally. Especially in the case of the Cambodians, we still have a linguistic structure that is very different from ours. They are brilliant,” says the head of the medical imaging department, herself from Gabon, and a medical graduate in Italy.
However, the machine often seizes up administratively. “More than the medical course, the heaviest to manage for its foreign doctors is the administrative course. They have to fight constantly to have their residence permits renewed. The French administration does not always facilitate their procedures, while these doctors play an essential role in hospitals and often with lower salaries. »
State of play at Montauban hospital
The hospital center has 200 doctors, as well as 30 to 35 interns assigned by the University of Toulouse, depending on the semesters.
The establishment also welcomes in its ranks practitioners with foreign qualifications (outside the EU and the EEA): 8 associate trainees and 2 associate practitioners.
The 8 associate trainees. These professionals are foreign doctors (outside the EU-EEA) who come to France to benefit from additional training leading to the recognition of a level of professional qualification, within the framework of an international hospital cooperation agreement. These professionals work as interns in the departments. The Montauban CH has recruited associate trainees, particularly in imaging, rheumatology and psychiatry. If they wish to pursue an exercise in France, they must be winners of the knowledge verification tests (EVC).
The 2 associated practitioners are winners of the latest knowledge verification tests (EVC).