Doctors: Beware, GPs "no longer understand what is expected of them," warns the president of MG France

"We keep getting messages telling us one thing and its opposite," and GPs "feel under threat," thunders the combative practitioner, who will lead the work of her union's congress in Le Havre on Friday and Saturday.

"After the signing of the new medical agreement" a year ago, which increased the consultation fee to 30 euros, "general practitioners were nevertheless reassured, they had the impression that their work was being recognized."

For example, "we are told that we need to use fewer antibiotics, and then we increase" the number of new prescribers, she says, referring to the ability now given to pharmacists to prescribe antibiotics for bacterial tonsillitis or cystitis, and to proposals to extend this possibility to sinusitis and ear infections.

They represent 41.3% of doctors

"After the signing of the new medical agreement" a year ago, which increased the cost of a GP consultation to 30 euros , "general practitioners were reassured, they felt their work was being recognized. But since then, we've been hit non-stop," says Agnès Giannotti.

General practitioners, whose demographics are declining—they made up 41.3% of the total medical population in 2024, compared to 47.1% in 2010—are supposed to be at the heart of the healthcare system, with a central role as primary care physicians, capable of providing appropriate guidance to their patients. But this role is currently being eroded by multiple initiatives.

Patients are beginning to have direct access to physiotherapists or advanced practice nurses, bypassing their general practitioner. Specialists are also pushing for patients to access their practices without having to go through the "general practitioner" process.

The red line of freedom of installation

And general practitioners also fear losing their freedom to practice. MG France is fiercely opposed to the Garot bill recently adopted by the National Assembly, which aims to establish the principle of retiring in areas with the highest number of practitioners.

And the union warns about the applicability of François Bayrou's request that doctors practice two days a month in a medical desert. Agnès Gioannotti denounces the "zoning" of medical density on which the various political proposals are based, "completely false" and which "has not been updated for several years."

"Until we have a precise and exact definition of what an over-endowed area or a normal-endowed area is, any measurement will result in aberrations," she says.

The status of “junior doctors”.

Anger is also brewing over the issue of "junior doctors." Starting in November 2026, future general practitioners will have to, for their eleventh and final year of study, work as interns outside of major hospitals, to lend a hand in the local areas.

But MG France estimates that the monthly allowance provided to independent general practitioners who take on a junior doctor will not cover the logistical costs (office, secretarial services, equipment) for hosting the junior doctor: "€1,200, while the average cost is at least €2,000." According to the government, all allowances combined (participation in on-call duty, special allowance for certain very under-resourced areas), this total could reach up to €3,000. "But not all doctors will reach this level," emphasizes Agnès Giannotti.