France's union of private radiologists, Fédération Nationale des Médecins Radiologues (FNMR), has repudiated the latest report from France's national audit office (La Cour des Comptes) about medical imaging and called into question much of its content.
In a statement released on the eve of France's national radiology meeting, Journées Francophones de Radiologie (JFR 2022), the FNMR highlighted the "contradictions and approximations" listed in the report that the union believes endanger prevention and access to radiological examinations -- and therefore the health of the French.
According to the FNMR, the audit chamber's report only looks at the increase in medical imaging expenses, and bases its analysis on a short-term "buyer's market" approach: If the volume of radiological procedures increases, the report explains, prices must automatically fall. The FNMR underlines that this is because the chamber desires to achieve economies of scale and to reduce costs.
However, the same report also recognizes, paradoxically, the insufficiencies of the radiological equipment and resources available to meet the growing needs of patients, the FNMR stated.
"Let's remember that pathologies that are not screened because of a lack of resources and a lack of territorial coverage, will result in a loss of opportunity for patients and in much greater public expenditure," the FNMR noted in the statement.
The report then recommends limiting the activity of radiologists to diagnostic imaging, the "primary purpose" of the specialty. Interventional radiology, which is recognized by all, including the Ministry of Health, as beneficial to patients and a source of savings for health insurance would be outside radiologists' remit, according to the FNMR.
The FNMR also rejected the audit chamber's description of the private or liberal imaging sector as the "private commercial sector," seemingly ignoring the code of ethics, which states that "Medicine must not be practised as a business" (Art R.4127-19) when private radiologists respect the same oath of office as hospital doctors.
The FNMR stated that the health system cannot be reduced to a volume/price logic and that patients' interests are the primary concern of the FNMR and all radiologists. The union noted that it has made proposals about healthcare accounts to the health insurance system (Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Maladie, CNAM), and now the CNAM and the government must choose to work together with physicians and other health professionals for the benefit of all or pursue their objective of blindly reducing expenses to the detriment of the health of the French.
