Aurélien Rousseau, new Minister of Health: “We must enter the time of evidence”
The transfer of power between François Braun and Aurélien Rousseau took place on Friday shortly after 9 a.m., in the hall of the Ministry of Health, avenue de Ségur. The opportunity for the outgoing and incoming ministers to recall their shared course: the fight against inequalities in access to care.
“Emotion”, “modesty”, “gravity”, ” determination “ : it is under these auspices that the former chief of staff of Elisabeth Borne placed his arrival in this ministry which he knows well, after having directed, during the health crisis, the regional health agency (ARS) of Ile-de-France. “We must now enter the time of proof”he insisted.
Aurélien Rousseau first paid tribute to his predecessor – “a man of exception, commitment, courage” –, before declining four convictions. “I am not going to present a roadmap this morning, it would be presumptuous”he warned.
First conviction of the new minister: to defend the social protection and health system, “our common good”, he hammered. Second axis: ” make work “ together city and hospital, doctors and other health professionals, prevention and care… “The Covid crisis has shown that we know how to be bigger than square meadows”, he argued. A call for the cohesion of the various health actors, at a time when the summer promises to be difficult again in the hospital and in the city. Third belief: “Trusting what emerges in [guise de] solution, land », he advocated, in line with the local consultations carried out, throughout the past year, within the framework of the National Council for the refoundation of health, a lever carried by the Elysée. The fourth and final line of action is also a continuation: the enarque defended the “prevention” of its new perimeter, registered in the title of the ministry since the arrival of François Braun, a year ago. “Prevention is not an extra soul, what to do when you have succeeded in everything else”, he pointed out. But it’s “the first of the fights against social and territorial inequalities”. One of the last commitments made by his predecessor relates precisely to this issue: François Braun announced, on July 19, during questions to the government, that the new prevention appointments offered by Health Insurance at three key ages in life will first benefit 45-50 year olds from 1er october.
“Faced with growing inequalities in access to care, I sincerely believe that through our actions we have stopped this descent into hell, (…) we now have to go back to the light, and that will not happen without health professionals”noted François Braun. “I am relieved to leave this great administration and this difficult task to someone like you. Don’t let go »he told his successor.