The times for appointments with a specialist doctor keep getting longer. A study also shows that ophthalmologists are not the only ones concerned.
65% of French people think that the health system has deteriorated in recent years. This is what emerges from an Ifop survey carried out for the Jalma cabinet, and made public this Tuesday by Les Echos.fr. And according to our compatriots, it is in the hospital that the deterioration in quality would be the most marked (60%).
To understand, the investigators wanted to know the origin of this pessimism. The figures indicate that waiting times that are too long to get a doctor’s appointment are seen as the main factor in this deterioration.
Ophthalmologists, but not only …
Indeed, these deadlines have continued to lengthen in recent years. And the study shows that ophthalmologists aren’t the only ones affected. To get an appointment with an eye specialist, the French must wait an average of 111 days. This is seven days more than two years ago. But, as Les Echos point out, at a gynecologist, it takes 57 days, at a dermatologist 50 days, and even at the general practitioner, it is necessary to be more and more patient: 6 days of waiting instead of 4 days. two years ago. A minority of French people (44%) nevertheless consider it easy to access a specialist.
Access to hospital doctors is getting more complicated
Moreover, when Ifop asked the French why they had to give up treatment from a specialist doctor, 64% blamed (in November 2014) the appointment times and 46% the cost of the consultation. 32% accuse the geographical distance of their specialist. Proof that the problem of medical deserts has still not been resolved.
Finally, to understand why the French are worried about the future of their hospitals, the study inevitably reveals that the waiting times for obtaining an appointment with a hospital doctor follow the same slope as for city doctors. They too are getting longer from year to year!
The Ministry of Health in the fight against medical deserts
So, to put an end to this development, the government is trying to take measures to bring doctors and citizens closer together. In December 2012, the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, for example created her “Health Territory” Pact, notably with contracts for general medicine practitioners which offer practitioners who settle in a medical desert a guarantee of income and improved social protection in terms of maternity or sickness leave.
For ophthalmology, the delegation of tasks to other health professionals – orthoptists – is organized slowly.
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