80% of French people cannot access a gynecologist or an ophthalmologist in sector 1 and less than 45 minutes by car. The health divide is worsening.
The UFC-Que Choisir does not mince words. In its latest review of access to healthcare in France, the users’ association quite simply refers to a “health divide”. It must be said that the inventory is bordering on disaster in certain medical disciplines. Certain regions, including the center-east, are particularly affected. In order to help the French to better identify their situation, the organization publishes an interactive map on his site.
Fewer and fewer general practitioners
Even for common illnesses, finding a doctor seems very difficult in France. Access to a general practitioner is a problem for some 15 million people. Among them, 3 million live in a medical desert. The situation is particularly complicated in rural but also mountainous areas. Thus, the inhabitants of the Massif Central, the Pyrenees, the Alps or even the Corsican mountains have more difficulty than others in consulting their GP.
But overall, it is all the regions that have experienced a decline in supply in this sector – the notable exception of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (now Hauts-de-France) and Alsace. Two parameters correspond to this reality: proximity to the healthcare professional and the number of practitioners available for a given number of patients.
Source : UFC-Que Choose
21 million French people lack a pediatrician
Better not to need a specialist either in the different departments of France. 80% of French people lack gynecologists or ophthalmologists who do not exceed fees and who are located less than 45 minutes from home. Among these professionals, the deficiency is more spread, even if the center and the south-west are more severely disaffected.
Paediatricians are mainly concentrated in large cities and the prefectures of sparsely populated departments. In more demographically lax areas, we can therefore often speak of medical desert. Adding access difficulties, more than 21 million French people are confronted with this problem. It is among these specialists that the record is the darkest. The east of Paris is experiencing the heaviest decline, while the picture becomes clearer in the surroundings of Aurillac, Moulins, Bordeaux and Rouen.
Source : UFC-Que Choose
Gynecologists and ophthalmologists absent
As for gynecologists, almost the entire territory is faced with a lack of practitioners. Even large cities are affected by these tensions. Only a few moderate-scale municipalities have seen an improvement: Bourges, Nancy, Puy-en-Velay and Roanne.
Source : UFC-Que Choose
Access to ophthalmologists is not improving either, including in large cities. The north and west are hardly doing any better.
Source : UFC-Que Choose
The price explosion
Geographical distribution is the main cause of the medical deserts “of the cities” and “of the fields”, estimates the UFC-Que Choisir. The measures deployed by the government have not helped because they are little followed by the first concerned. A “demography” option is thus offered to health professionals who settle in so-called fragile areas. It consists of financial assistance, on average of 15,000 euros. But among the 2,075 doctors who called in, only 10% were newly installed.
Doctors are even less satisfied with the “Territorial solidarity health” option: only 28 have accepted a session in a fragile area – of at least 28 days – in exchange for covering travel costs and a 10% increase in costs. their fees. 12 of these volunteers kept their commitments.
But the price increase is also taken into account: the consultation swelled by 3% among general practitioners and 8% among pediatricians. An increase much greater than that of inflation and therefore unjustifiable for the UFC-Que Choisir which foresees the creation of financial deserts. It therefore calls for the closure of sector 2 – which authorizes these overruns in relation to the Social Security tariff – and the obligation of sector 1 to doctors who would settle in over-equipped areas.
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