The departmental services of maternal and child protection (PMI), very useful to young parents sometimes far from care, are emptying of their doctors.
- In 2019, 753,000 babies were born in France, i.e. 6,000 fewer births than in 2018 (–0.7%).
- The number of births has been falling every year for the past five years, but at a slowing rate over the years.
The Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES) publishes a new study on departmental maternal and child protection services (PMI).
4,800 fixed consultation points
Very useful, these neighborhood services carry out public health and medico-social prevention missions for parents and their children, as well as during pregnancy. They are also involved in the area of family planning and education. “Our new research describes the activity of these services and the numbers of their main staff from the perspective of changes and departmental disparities. To do this, it relies on the results of the annual social assistance survey. explain public health experts.
At the end of 2019, the departmental services of PMI carried out local actions mainly in the 4,800 fixed consultation points spread over the territory. A variety of professionals are involved in these services, primarily childcare workers, who represent 43% of the full-time equivalent (FTE) workforce.
Fewer activities
“While the total workforce in FTE decreased only slightly between 2016 and 2019 (-0.4% on average per year, a percentage comparable to that of the early 2010s), those of doctors, for their part, have significantly reduced (-4.8% per year)”, can we read in the report.
Actions aimed at children, in particular dedicated individual consultations and home visits (VAD), remain the main activity of PMI services (58% of all actions). The number of these actions also fell by 4.5% on average per year between 2016 and 2019, to 435 consultations and VAD for 1,000 children under 6 years old.
Finally, family planning and education consultations and interviews constitute less than a third of the activity of PMI services (29%). They are also fewer than before: at the end of 2019, there were 43 consultations per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49 compared to 46 at the end of 2016. “Actions in favor of mothers and future mothers, through consultations or VAD, represent 13% of individual actions and have been on a downward trend since 2016″, concludes the DREES.
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