Pediatricians threaten emergency strike

Their extreme decision reflects indignation and general fed-up: Geneva pediatricians are threatening to go on emergency strike from December 21 and for an indefinite period. The offer of pediatric care would be suspended and small patients would have to go to the hospital. The Geneva Pediatric Society (SGP), which has nearly 170 active members, met on Tuesday evening in an extraordinary general assembly and approved this measure by 92%.

The object of the ire of these professionals: this summer, the Federal Administrative Court (TAF) restricted the use of an emergency tax. Amounting around forty francs, this is billed to patients during last-minute consultations during the day, evenings, weekends and public holidays. It was denounced by around twenty insurers, from the Tarifsuisse group (which represents around forty funds in total), who won their case with the TAF.

Stop billing and even reimburse

From now on, emergency centers must therefore stop billing this compensation. The insurers even drive the point home by asking them for a retrocession of the amounts collected over the last five years. “For certain infrastructures, this represents enormous sums, which will lead them to close their doors! Martine Bideau is indignant. In Geneva, for example, a center is ordered to return 300,000 francs to Helsana.” There is panic in many emergency centers in Switzerland, as reported “Time”.

“The health system and patients will suffer”

The Geneva practitioners who provide pediatric care are not employees of a center, since they provide this care independently, in their office or in the Eaux-Vives, La Tour and Lancy medical centers. “But they offer emergency appointments and in this context, they may be concerned,” underlines Martine Bideau.

With Jean-Yves Corajod, the other co-president of the SPG, she insists on the importance of this tax, a “symbol of recognition” and financial added value for mobilization in particular time slots. “This decision by the TAF represents a loss of income of 25% for on-call pediatricians, while medical rates in pediatrics are already particularly low. Under these conditions, it is no longer possible to provide this service. We cannot ask professionals to work evenings, weekends and public holidays without compensation!”

The two officials warn: it is the entire health system, and the patients, who will suffer. The thousands of children received each year by pediatric care will have to go, instead, to hospital emergency rooms, which are already overcrowded. “To this postponement will be added additional costs, since a hospital consultation costs more than twice as much.”

With this notice, the SPG wants to attract the attention of the authorities. She indicates that she contacted Pierre Maudet, head of Health, so that a solution could be found.

Tense context

The removal of this tax is part of an already tense context: in mid-February, a majority of Geneva healthcare providers – pediatricians, general practitioners and even child psychiatrists – learned that they will see their income drop by 2% in 2024. At issue : the TarMed point – which is used to calculate the value of medical interventions and therefore the reimbursements that providers can expect – increased from 0.96 to 0.94 francs, upon request from Tarifsuisse. The measure is however not final since the courts must still rule on the merits of the dispute, probably at the end of the year.

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Aurélie Toninato has been a journalist in the Geneva section since 2010 and a graduate of the Academy of Journalism and Media. After covering the field of Education, she is now mainly responsible for issues related to Health.More info

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