Private clinics called for “total strike” in June against new hospital rates

Private hospitals and clinics are called for a “total strike” from June 3, to denounce new 2024 prices which “put them at risk”, the Federation of Private Hospitalization, which brings together these establishments, indicated this Wednesday. “Meeting as an exceptional executive committee, the Federation of Private Hospitalization (FHP) has decided, in conjunction with all the unions of private doctors, to react to the shock caused” by the government announcements on the 2024 prices, with “a strike total”, except vital activities such as dialysis, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, indicated the FHP in a press release.

Services which “provide vital care” will not be stopped, and establishments will exclude any action which could “result in a loss of opportunity”, the management of the FHP was told. Last week, the government announced the increase of 4.3% in the prices of public hospitals and the non-profit sector in 2024, but only 0.3% of those of private establishments.

The FHP considers “unacceptable not to grant the necessary funding to increase salaries in the private sector when this is granted for health professionals in all other establishments”. This decision, “unprecedentedly violent”, aggravates an “already critical” situation, because the costs of hospitals and clinics “are increasing exponentially”, driven by inflation, she added. The share of private hospitals in deficit, “increased from 25 to 40% between 2021 and 2023, will under these conditions reach the alarming level of more than 60% in 2024”.

“Faced with the regrettable absence of transparency and consultation with the Minister Delegate in charge of Health”, the FHP announces “to limit its interactions with the Ministry and the Regional Health Agencies (ARS) to only essential exchanges”. She intends to “file all possible forms of legal recourse nationally and with each health establishment to deal with this injustice,” she writes.

The clinics have “no other solution than to go on strike,” said the president of the federation Lamine Gharbi, quoted in the press release. “The government must open its eyes: by weakening private hospitalization, it is weakening the entire health system.” The call for strike concerns the entire private for-profit hospitalization sector, i.e. 1,030 establishments where more than 200,000 health professionals work, including 40,000 private doctors, according to FHP figures.