French health workers say reforms won’t work

Angry at the government’s new national health law, and angry at the way the French right is ramming it through parliament. Doctors, nurses, and researchers marched in Paris and other cities on Thursday as the new law gets its reading in the upper house, the Senate. Health minister Roselyn Bachelot has made some concessions, but fear of creeping privatisation is real:

“Health is expensive, not only because there’s waste, it’s expensive because there is incredible progress, so we need to find a balance. It’s not by making a hospital into a business that we’ll solve the problems. It’s not the right answer to the question,” said one doctor. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wide-ranging reforms are being slowed by opposition amendments, but for the Health bill the government has halved the procedural time under an emergencies provision. Health workers say the reforms will mean funding and job cuts.More about: France, Health

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