The CNOM is publishing this Thursday the Atlas of Medical Demography 2016. The number of general practitioners has notably fallen by 8.4%. Big cities like Paris are no longer spared.
For the 10th consecutive year, the National Council of the Order of Physicians (CNOM) presented this Thursday its new 2016 edition of the Atlas of medical demography. The published data confirm a trend observed for several years. While the number of physicians in regular activity remains stable (-0.4% over the period 2007-2016), the Order notes a constant increase in the number of retirees (+ 87.7%). Among them, many choose to continue to exercise, for lack of successors, recognizes the ordinal institution.
Indeed, to understand this phenomenon, the Atlas insists on the “worrying” drop in the number of general practitioners, the first to be affected by the large number of retirements. Since 2007, the number of general practitioners has decreased by 8.4%. This decrease could result in the loss of one general practitioner in four over the period 2007-2025!
General medicine: CNOM classification by living area
And faced with this worrying forecast for equal access to healthcare for all French people, general practitioners are not the only ones to be scarce. In more and more territories, the shortage of doctors extends to all specialists (ophthalmologists, dermatologists, etc.). And here again, some regions are more affected than others.
In a press release, the CNOM notes that “France continues to present significant territorial disparities”. “The territories of the Atlantic coast, Rhône-Alpes and the border territories (North, East) see their numbers increase when other territories combine low density and lack of attractiveness such as the Center, Burgundy … which are increasingly more in pain, ”he explains. Proof of this is with mapping (below) the density of physicians in regular activity, all specialties combined.
Big cities are not spared
In addition, the institution points out that there are also “suffering territories including in the departments and regions well endowed”. As an example, the CNOM cites the Inland Brittany (Argoat)“which suffers compared to that of the coast.
Finally, to find medical deserts, no need to go to the provinces or the countryside, worries Dr. Patrick Romestaing, vice-president of the National Council of the Order of Physicians (CNOM).
Contacted by Why actor, he confides that “medical desertification also affects peri-urban areas, as well as the heart of large cities”. In Paris, he indicates that the number of general practitioners has fallen by 20% in recent years. “And by 2020, one in four general practitioners is expected to disappear in the heart of the capital,” he announces.
To put an end to these medical deserts, this doctor does not want to hear about coercive measures, “which discourage”. “We will have to put in place more incentive measures, especially for the youngest”, he concludes.
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