“Medical practice is looking for a buyer. Amount of the sale … Free”. Despite the title of the tempting and unusual ad, nothing helps. Patrick Laine, general practitioner, and author of this offer on Le bon coin, n ‘has still not found a buyer nine months later. The 66-year-old man who wants to stop his activity after a stroke is still looking for his replacements who obviously do not jostle at the gate. “I have none. contact for nine months, and even by calling on an Italian network in Valle d’Aosta, I have no feedback either, it’s unimaginable, it’s beyond my comprehension ”, he wonders when questioned by the radio France blue.
The doctor is ready to play real estate agents and better still, to deliver the whole “package” free of charge, which includes the two separate waiting rooms, the two consultation rooms, the patients and the medical equipment. But we must believe that the prospect for doctors to settle in a village of 800 inhabitants in a rural area is no longer dreaming. Patrick Laine’s quest has therefore turned into a symbol, in spite of himself, of the medical desertification.
“Doctors of my generation do not balk at work. But it is true that today working a minimum of 12 hours a day it must be scary. I even proposed to divide this working time between two doctors, but I have no more success “, he explains to France blue.
A shortage of general practitioners to be feared
The unequal distribution of doctors and the resulting deficiencies in certain regions is a problem that the government tackled in 2012 with the launch of the Territory-health pact. This plan provides incentives for the installation of young doctors in the territories which lack them. Scholarship for students, bonus for doctors and improved social protection … The device visibly struggles to seduce.
And the situation might not get better. The National Order of Physicians anticipates a 12% overall drop in general practitioners until 2020.
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