The French government’s immigration bill, which will be discussed by the Council of Ministers in January, looks to tackle the issue of foreign health professionals being forced to continuously apply for residence.
By creating a “medical and pharmacy professions talent” residence permit, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt are looking to give reassure the 5,000 health practitioners with degrees from outside the European Union (PADHUE) whose work situation in public hospitals is insecure.
In the last few months, doctors, midwives, dental surgeons and pharmacists have expressed their impatience by staging sit-ins in front of the Ministry of Health, as more than 2,000 of them have been waiting nearly two years for their files to be examined by a national commission authorizing them to practice. The government has proposed to defer the deadline to review their applications, initially set for December 31, 2022, to April 30, 2023.
For Slim Bramli, a gastroenterologist and hepatologist, and president of the Federation of Health Practitioners (FPS), there is an urgent need to rectify the situation of professionals whose degrees were conferred outside the European Union. “It is extremely awkward to see doctors, winners of highly selective and competitive examinations, having to clock in at the prefecture every six months to renew their residence permits.”
‘Associate trainee status’
Brahim Zazgad, president of the union of practitioners with degrees conferred outside the European Union, claims that 70% percent of foreign health professionals practice in “medical deserts” – areas with low medical coverage: “In certain services such as psychiatry, there are even deserts in the middle of Paris,” he said. “I am struck by the precarious situation of foreign doctors, some of whom have associate trainee status, with salaries of between €1,200 and €1,400 per month.”
The government is considering the creation of two residence permits for “medical and pharmacy professions talents,” depending on the status of the health professional. The first will have a maximum duration of thirteen months, and is 13 for foreign practitioners who are employed for a period equal to or greater than one year in a public or private non-profit institution. The second will have a maximum duration of four years, and be granted to those who have successfully passed the anonymous verification tests of fundamental and practical knowledge (EVC), a competitive exam that is the first step in the process of being authorized to practice.
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