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Beware if you should happen to need surgery unexpectedly in France this winter: French doctors begin strike Last Updated: 2002-11-04 6:58:24 -0400 (Reuters Health) PARIS (Reuters Health) - Doctors working in private hospitals and clinics across France began an open-ended strike today in an action that is splitting the medical community. The main reason for the walkout is the increasing difficulty private specialists are having in obtaining professional insurance cover. Insurance companies such as ACE and Swiss Life have warned French medics, particularly gynecologists, obstetricians and anesthetists, that their insurance contracts will not be renewed at the end of the year. The strike has been called by the National Coordination of Private Doctors (CNMC). Philippe Cuq, a heart surgeon and member of the CNMC is one of those whose insurance has been canceled. He told the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche: "Some 3,000 surgeons, 1,000 gynecologists and obstetricians and 1,000 anesthetists are in the same situation...in 12 years the cost of insurance for doctors has risen by 400%." ... The CNMC says private healthcare is "dying" and has been neglected by health minister Jean-Francois Mattei, since the new government came to power in June. Spokesman Jerome Marty, told Reuters Health the insurance situation could mean, "from January 1, 2003, thousands of surgeons and anesthetists will have to stop work and hundreds of clinics shut." The CNMC showed its capacity for mobilising the troops in November last year when it led the majority of doctors and clinic directors in a national strike. As a result, the then Socialist government allocated an extra 259 million euros to bring salaries of private health care staff in line with those in the public sector.