The liberal nurses are angry. They will demonstrate this Friday in Toulouse and throughout France to make their voices heard.
Those who were applauded every night at 8 p.m. during the pandemic now feel forgotten. The liberal nurses are angry and denounce a remuneration which has stagnated for several years. They will demonstrate in Toulouse and throughout France, this Friday from 2 p.m. in front of the Regional Health Agency, in the Toulouse district of Raisin.
Through the non-union and apolitical collective of “angry liberal nurses”, created four months ago, they want to challenge the government on the issues of their profession. “There are several triggering factors for our dissatisfaction, points out Laurianne Vermoere, liberal nurse. We are not a profession with a lot of demands, we work above all in the human and we take care of our patients. We have remained very silent for the past 14 years hence the massive awakening.”
The liberal nursing profession is currently undergoing serious impoverishment: costs have exploded, fuel in particular, and the nomenclature of medical procedures has not been reviewed since 2009, list the nurses. They are asking for the withdrawal of the Social Security Financing Act, put into effect by 49.3 at the end of 2022. Currently, a nurse cannot bill a patient for care if the latter is hospitalized on the same day. The Social Security considers this act as a fraud and estimates that 10% of the invoices of the last three years are erroneous.
200 km per day and the price of fuel exploding
The cost of fuel has also exploded in recent months, “in our profession we travel about 200 kilometers a day, and again, travel allowances have not been reviewed since 2012.” A risk for remote patients who need several treatments a day. Because nursing practices tend to favor the care of “profitable” patients, “we are still companies that need to run and inevitably we will take what is profitable for us”, confides the nurse bitterly.
“The profession is dying and so is the French health system, people really need to realize this.” According to an audit by the collective, 34% of liberal nurses plan to leave the profession within five years and 58% within ten years, a disgust with the profession that could cost hospitals dearly.