The French government has unveiled a long-awaited reform that will make it easier for healthcare professionals trained outside the European Union to regularise their professional status, as the country grapples with a severe shortage of doctors.
The decrees, published in the Journal Officiel – the official government gazette, which publishes laws, decrees and regulations – revise the rules for so-called PADHUE – health professionals with non-EU medical degrees, many of whom have been working in understaffed French hospitals for years.
The move fulfils a promise made by President Emmanuel Macron in January 2024 and affects around 5,000 healthcare professionals, including doctors, midwives, dentists and pharmacists.
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Many of these doctors have been working in France full-time in understaffed hospitals for years, often earning a third of what their EU-trained counterparts make.
They have repeatedly criticised the existing framework as deeply inequitable.
PADHUEs have until now only been able to gain full professional recognition by passing a highly selective equivalency exam known as the EVC – a process which excluded many experienced practitioners.
“In my specialty, anyone scoring below 14.7 out of 20 was rejected,” said Redha Kettache, a PADHUE doctor who protested against this earlier this year, noting that the exam jury also awarded fewer slots than initially planned.
Less rigid system
The new process introduces a less rigid internal evaluation – including a multiple choice test and a formal opinion from the candidate’s department head, provided the practitioner has at least two years of experience working in France.
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"This new route is for those already in place," said Abdel Mechouar of the National Union of Non-EU Practitioners. "It’s essentially a [multiple choice questionnaire], but with input from department heads for those who meet the criteria."
In 2024, France created 4,000 new slots for foreign-trained doctors under a standardised procedure, replacing the previous patchwork of inconsistent hospital-based rules. Of those, 3,235 candidates were accepted outright, with another 638 placed on a waiting list.
