Macron Proposes Emergency Hospital Funding to Calm Protests

(Bloomberg) --

French President Emmanuel Macron’s government unveiled an emergency funding plan for ailing hospitals in an effort to calm protests from doctors and health-care workers as the country braces for strikes over pension reform.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government will raise the budget for hospitals by 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) over the next three years, starting with a 300 million boost in 2020. The state will also take over 10 billion euros of debt from the hospital system, and nurses will be paid bonuses.

“We are presenting this emergency plan to respond to the anger, the exhaustion and the distress,” Philippe said at a press conference on Wednesday in Paris.

Macron and his government are facing the prospect of a resurgence of protests on numerous fronts in the coming months as the French leader tries to get his reform agenda back on track.

The Yellow Vest movement, which began a year ago, has largely subsided after Macron took measures to boost incomes, but labor unions are now organizing a general strike Dec. 5 to protest against planned pension reforms. Some unions have said the strike could be indefinite.

Macron’s efforts to calm the unrest in hospitals are unlikely to work immediately. Health-care workers will still protest Nov. 30 and Dec. 17, and plan to join the pension reform marches, said Christophe Prudhomme, a spokesman for a national medics association.

Speaking on BFM TV, Prudhomme said hospital budgets need to rise by an extra 4 billion euros next year to resolve their difficulties.

“We’re asking for a real shock,” he said. “This cobbling together of measures doesn’t measure up.”

To contact the reporter on this story: William Horobin in Paris at whorobin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Vidya Root

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