Health Minister Yannick Neuder visits Var: "There will be no magic money"

You were keen to attend the graduation ceremony and diploma presentation for healthcare professionals this Thursday evening. What message would you like to convey to them?

That it's the most beautiful profession in the world and a life choice. We must encourage it, as the South Region is doing. It also corresponds to the entire policy I have implemented. We need to train more doctors according to the needs of the regions. This will be the case with the removal of all the numerus that limited entry into the second year of medicine, which was adopted by the Senate in June. We have, for example, 1,600 French students who, each year, go to study medicine in Romania, Spain, and Belgium. We must stop this hemorrhage and bring back all the students who are currently training abroad; there are nearly 5,000 of them. If we let them finish their studies elsewhere, we will miss out on doctors for the future.

How can we make these professions more attractive?

In hospitals, this involves, in particular, the search for meaning. There is a lot of bureaucracy and administrative tasks that can be completely transformed. AI will save caregivers a lot of time and give them back medical time with their patients. I draw inspiration from what is being done in Italy but also in Spain. We need to transform our hospitals into the hospitals of tomorrow.

You are also going to the CHITS in Sainte-Musse, which went into the white plan phase last week due to issues with attendance and staffing levels...

It's my role to see the difficulties, to come and discuss the issues they're facing with the healthcare teams. I mobilized my ministry since April to be able to organize the summer season, including a meeting on June 16 with all the stakeholders, before the first heatwaves, to get a global vision. We know very well that some areas will be particularly tense, especially the most touristy ones. So we must be able to organize ourselves according to the forces at play. We're also counting on citizens to take responsibility.

"More than 90% of people in intensive care for the flu are not vaccinated."

In January 2023, Emmanuel Macron announced that he would ease overcrowding in emergency rooms. Will you be the minister who helps him keep his promise?

Above all, I am the minister who knows very well, in light of the extremely complicated budgetary contexts, that there will be no magic money. But we must achieve a structural evolution of our healthcare system, with a different organization. One that better regulates emergencies with the spread of the SAS throughout France: referral by calling 15 before any trip. By further increasing the dynamic between hospital and community medicine, thanks to digital technology that will help avoid redundant examinations and improve the medical monitoring of the French, with digital tools like "My Health Space." We also need more and better training. These are the measures that will, in the long term, help relieve overcrowding in our emergency rooms.

You also emphasize the fight against the circulation of chikungunya...

Yes. We have 12 identified outbreaks and 30 cases in mainland France. This isn't about causing concern, but rather reminding us of the simple actions each of us can take to protect ourselves from mosquito bites and prevent the spread of mosquitoes. These include wearing loose-fitting clothing that covers as much of the body as possible, using repellents, and eliminating all standing water. I'm thinking in particular of bowls placed under plants or gutters.

Public Health France warns of the number of drownings, which has increased by 58% over the past year (between June 1 and July 2)...

This is a real issue. Let's remember, again, the importance of responsibility. Don't let your children swim unsupervised; go to designated swimming areas, respect the timetables, and don't go to unsupervised areas, whether swimming in the sea or a lake.

After François Bayrou's budget announcements , some people were shocked to hear him ask for "efforts" from the sick...

We must ask everyone to make an effort, from caregivers, from citizens. And in some ways, the sick should not be stigmatized. But when you have a chronic illness, and you can be offered a flu vaccination in winter, you have to accept it. More than 90% of people who are in intensive care for the flu are not vaccinated. It is also up to caregivers to set an example. We must fight obscurantism, return to science, and constantly remind people that prevention is one of the solutions to reduce health care costs. Alcohol, tobacco, food: the more we prevent, the less we will need to treat.

The vaccination issue is the post-Covid effect?

There's a saturation effect. In France, we're not as good at vaccination as elsewhere. Some countries like Denmark, Australia, and Portugal have vaccination rates of 80 to 90%, while we're struggling to reach 40% here. We need to improve, and fast! Vaccination also concerns young people. Starting in September, with the Minister of National Education, we're going to launch a double vaccination program in middle schools: against meningitis, in view of the resurgence of cases, and especially against the papillomavirus, which would prevent approximately 1,600 cervical cancers per year.

"We will be exposed to the insolvency of social security in 2027"

Among the 60 measures proposed in June by the French Health Insurance Fund was a bonus/penalty system for companies with a significantly higher than average number of sick leave cases. Why was this idea not adopted?

Yes, it's been retained. Perhaps not in the form of bonus-penalty. When you see that there's a 10% difference in absenteeism rates between two identical companies, it means there's a problem with working conditions, management, etc. The CNAM (National Health Insurance Fund) can itself conduct its own checks through labor inspectors and others. We could go further by considering sanctions. After François Bayrou's announcements, the work begins. I'm going to spend my summer consulting with parliamentarians of all political stripes, and with trade union organizations.

What do you think of Marine Le Pen, who is blackmailing the government into censorship?

I'm not playing the RN's game. Some will always be able to press the censorship button. We'll change ministers, we'll change whatever you want, but we'll still be facing ourselves with the 3.3 trillion debt. So if we're not collectively responsible, we'll expose ourselves to social security insolvency in 2027, with the inability to finance pensions and medicines. The risk is to go down the path Greece took a few years ago. There, it was a 30% cut in salaries for civil servants, a 30% cut in retirement pensions. It will be much more drastic than what can be proposed within the current budgetary framework.

Your own opinion on the vote on the Duplomb law, and the reintroduction of acetamiprid, a controversial insecticide?

I practice evidence-based medicine for a product that is currently authorized in 26 of the 27 EU countries. We are expecting studies in 2026. As soon as the ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental, and Occupational Health and Safety), which is independent, has factual elements with possible imputability linked to these products, France will ban their use. With this law, we are putting France back on the same level of precaution as other European countries, for very targeted and very limited use in time (3 years). Moreover, let's be completely logical, we banned this product when we were unable to ban the importation of products from other countries that had been treated with these pesticides.