They want to “get more.” The Federation of Pharmacists (FSPF) announced on Thursday, May 16, that it has filed a strike notice for May 30 to assess ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with health insurers.
“The budget that is on the table does not allow us to finance all pharmacies,” the president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), Philippe Besset, said during a press conference. The FSPF therefore announces “a day of questioning of the population, of the public authorities on all topics concerning the pharmacy”, which will be “a day of closure of pharmacies on May 30, with demonstrations organized everywhere in France”, he specified.
Ahead of this day of mobilization, a “strike of on-call workers organized locally by unions will apply everywhere in the territory from Saturday, May 18 to Monday, May 20,” the Union of Pharmacists’ Unions (USPO) said in a statement.
Pharmacists want to “draw attention to the challenges and dangers facing the profession” and advocate for access to care, according to the USPO, which will also participate in the May 30 mobilization.
“We will lose hundreds of pharmacies”
The health insurance increase proposal presented at the last multilateral meeting on Tuesday is “less” than the additional €1 billion compared to 2019 that the FSPF had hoped for the network in 2025.
A “counter-proposal for negotiations” was sent to CNAM on Wednesday, Philippe Besset said. A response to this “counter-proposal” is expected early next week, the official added, saying he faces a dilemma.
“We won’t reach the necessary budget but if we don’t take what’s on the table we will lose hundreds more pharmacies,” he explained, recalling that 46 pharmacies have closed since January, after 330 closures last year.
“We have chosen to propose a fight signature, to go all the way, to try to convince the public authorities and health insurance by all means of the urgent need to go further in the revaluations,” he added.