A new law to immigrate to France to attract medical professionals

After the “stress jobs” residence permit announced by the government in the new “immigration control and integration improvement” project in response to sectors suffering from labor shortageThe text of Article 7 comes with this new card, which provides a residence permit for a period of one to four years for health professionals and their families once they are appointed by a public or private non-profit health institution, with the aim of attracting foreign doctors and filling the specialization in the health sector..

The script plans two scenarios:

• The first: It concerns a doctor who has a work contract for at least one year and has not yet passed the “qualification verification” exam that is supervised by the National Center for Administration in coordination with the Ministry of Health. Thus, he will benefit from a 12-month residence permit, which can only be extended for 13 months in the event of failure of the exams..
• The second: pertains to a doctor who successfully passes these exams, and thus will obtain a “Talent – Health Professions” card for a period of four years..

Long and complicated path

And the head of the “Unified Union of Practitioners with Certificates outside the European Union” and the psychiatrist, Ibrahim Zazgad, believes in his statement to “Sky News Arabia” that any decision aimed at facilitating the situation of doctors with non-European degrees is welcome, as there is a terrible shortage of doctors in France. However, the residence permit does not solve the problem of certificate recognition and the administrative slowness that accompanies this process. Which means that foreign doctors will remain in a fragile and dangerous situation“.

“At a time when doctors coming from European Union countries benefit from the automatic recognition of their qualifications and certificates. Doctors who graduated from outside the Federation find themselves facing a long and complicated path before obtaining certificate equivalency and affiliation with the National Council for the Deanship of Physicians. Zasgad confirms.

This is the case for the 5,000 doctors with diplomas from outside the Federation who are currently working on temporary contracts in the EU French public hospitals. They practice the profession and dispense medicine under the responsibility of a physician who has the right to practice the profession.

That is why the former biologist and trade unionist, Eric Tron de Bouchoni, sent an open letter on behalf of the General Confederation of Labor, to both the Ministers of Health and the Interior on Thursday, December 22, 2022, presenting the suffering of this group of doctors in France that has been living under pressure for years..

In a telephone conversation with “Sky News Arabia”, De Bocconi regretted the condition of foreign doctors coming from outside the Union, who are pushed by current policies to be patient with long administrative procedures that may take ten years and the uncertainty of the future for them and their families, in addition to low salaries compared to European doctors. . The trainee doctor, thanks to the night shifts, earns about 2,000 euros, while his colleagues with European degrees start their practical career with about 3,000 euros.“.

And de Bocconi was careful not to get too optimistic about the new residence card stipulated in the project Immigration law Which was sent to the State Council last Monday, to be discussed in Parliament in the first half of 2023..

With the residence permit pending, the former biologist explained, “at least an end will be put to the systematic issuance of obligations to leave French territory for practicing doctors who have obtained a diploma from outside the European Union along with their families after they have been appointed in France.” French public hospitals. As usual, once the employment contract expires, they no longer have the right to practice the profession“.

New laws with the taste of deportation

In a move to rectify this situation, in 2019 the Ministry of Health created a new law, known as the “inventory procedure” that entrusts the regional health agencies with examining the license file of non-Union doctors who have two or more years of practice in France. So far, half of the files have been studied, while the remaining ones have been postponed to April 30, 2023..

And after examining the files whose examination may be delayed for more than a year. Without any response or dialogue, three possibilities arise: permission to practice fully, the need to take a course to consolidate skills in order to enhance technical or theoretical knowledge, or refusal.

“In the case of doctors who cannot justify two years of activity between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2021, the countdown has started for their residency and they have to leave by December 31, 2022. Tariq Mahdi, a doctor specializing in endocrinal biochemistry, tells Sky News Arabia.“.

And he continues, “Because they cannot be subject to the 2019 law, and they cannot pass the “qualification verification” exam to obtain the right to practice the profession in France because it was not issued this year, so they found themselves forced to leave their positions proactively before January 2023 due to the expiration of their contracts.“.

big shortage

These laws are enacted at a time when French hospitals are facing a huge shortage of medical supplies the doctors in various disciplines. Almost half of general practitioners are over 60 years old and nearly 6 million French people do not have a attending physician.

The reasons for this situation, according to the trade unionist in the General Confederation of Labor, “are due to the law set by France to limit the number of students admitted annually to medical schools to 6,000 students. This destroyed important specializations in hospitals, including emergency medicine, anesthesia and gynecological specialties. The state wanted to make an economic profit, so they lost on HR level“.

For his part, the CEO of hospital practitioners, Yves Rabovat, does not agree with the government’s new proposal, which he considers “patchy” and “does not solve the problem from its roots.”“.

In his interview with Sky News Arabia, he wondered about the French immigration policy, saying: Is France working to empty countries of its doctors in an attempt to compensate for the shortage that we have in our hospitals? Do we encourage the arrival of these doctors whom we did not invest in training or training instead of opening the doors of our universities to more medical students and ending an era full of fatal mistakes? How did a country considered the fourth in the world at the economic level accept that its hospitals become “medical deserts” due to a law enacted nearly 40 years ago?“.