Hundreds of private-sector doctors have travelled to Brussels in a symbolic protest against French health policy, warning that mounting pressure on private medicine risks undermining patient care and hospital capacity at home.
Issued on: 12/01/2026 -
Demonstration organised by private sector doctors to denounce an ‘authoritarian drift’ in the healthcare system in Paris, on 10 January 2026. Sign reads "doctors under pressure, patients without solutions". AFP - BERTRAND GUAY
Hundreds of anaesthetists, surgeons and obstetricians donned surgical caps, white coats and packed small suitcases on Sunday as they left France for a symbolic three-day “exile” in Brussels, protesting against the government’s health policy and what they see as a sustained squeeze on private medicine.
Around 20 buses departed from Porte Dauphine in Paris bound for the Belgian capital, carrying doctors determined to make their point heard.
“We want the government to stop attacking private medicine,” said Philippe Cuq, president of Le Bloc doctors union, shortly before the convoy set off.
Once in Brussels, the aim is to get to work. “We are going to prepare around a dozen proposals that we want to submit to the [French] prime minister when we return,” Cuq told reporters, adding that there were “around 1,500 doctors” taking part in the action.
According to him, 1,936 had initially signed up, but “several hundred were requisitioned” by the authorities and ultimately could not join.
Cuq said the organisers were now “waiting for a meeting” with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
“The head of government takes care of the farmers who feed the French people,” he remarked, “but we take care of the French people’s health.”
French doctors protest 'medical desert' reforms they say threaten independence
Hundreds of anaesthetists, surgeons and obstetricians donned surgical caps, white coats and packed small suitcases on Sunday as they left France for a symbolic three-day “exile” in Brussels, protesting against the government’s health policy and what they see as a sustained squeeze on private medicine.
Around 20 buses departed from Porte Dauphine in Paris bound for the Belgian capital, carrying doctors determined to make their point heard.
“We want the government to stop attacking private medicine,” said Philippe Cuq, president of Le Bloc doctors union, shortly before the convoy set off.
Once in Brussels, the aim is to get to work. “We are going to prepare around a dozen proposals that we want to submit to the [French] prime minister when we return,” Cuq told reporters, adding that there were “around 1,500 doctors” taking part in the action.
According to him, 1,936 had initially signed up, but “several hundred were requisitioned” by the authorities and ultimately could not join.
Cuq said the organisers were now “waiting for a meeting” with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
“The head of government takes care of the farmers who feed the French people,” he remarked, “but we take care of the French people’s health.”
French doctors protest 'medical desert' reforms they say threaten independence
The battle over additional fees
At the heart of the doctors’ future proposals is the key issue of additional fees, which operating theatre practitioners argue are essential to keeping their work economically viable.
“Supplementary health insurance must reimburse these excess fees,” Cuq insisted. “Patients understand this, but they do not understand why supplementary health insurance rates are rising while reimbursements are falling.”
Several practitioners explained that official state reimbursement rates alone do not cover either their remuneration or the real costs of specialised procedures.
Dr Didier Legeais, president of the national union of urologists and a participant in the Brussels action, gave a concrete example: a nephrectomy – the removal of part of the kidney in cancer cases – is reimbursed at €506 by the national health insurance system. “It costs at least €600 if a robot is not used, and €1,200 if a robot is used,” he said.
Legeais added that additional fees also help finance care “for the 8 million patients” who do not pay them, including the 5.5 million people covered by the complementary health insurance scheme (CSS).
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Knock-on effects for hospitals
The movement is already expected to have a significant impact at home. According to Lamine Gharbi, president of the Federation of Private Clinics (FHP), which backs the protest, “80 percent of private operating theatres” will be closed for the first three days of next week.
“It’s going to be tense,” he warned at Porte Dauphine, predicting increased pressure on public hospitals as patients unable to be treated in private clinics are redirected there.
The Brussels “exile” comes amid a broader wave of unrest among private doctors. Almost all organisations in the sector have called for strike action between 5 and 15 January.
Beyond fees, doctors are also angry about restrictions on sick leave prescriptions and measures they say undermine collective bargaining between the profession and the national health insurance system.
The scale of the discontent was on display on Saturday, when several thousand doctors marched through Paris – 20,000 according to organisers, and 5,000 according to police figures.
(with newswires)
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