Last January, a study revealed that 167,000 French women of childbearing age do not have a midwife or maternity hospital near their home, that is to say less than 45 minutes from home. A worrying situation, that the Sunday Newspaper (JDD) tries to explain in a published article this February 10.
How many hospitals close each year? “None or almost none, answer the authorities”, writes the weekly. However, “Several times a year, for decades, a small maternity hospital has been closed in France”. the JDD therefore alert: the number of French services dedicated to childbirth has almost been divided by three for forty years, and by two for twenty years.
498 maternities in 2018
Lack of regular studies on hospital closures in France, explains the JDD, it is difficult to measure the reality of the situation. But according to the annual report of the Court of Auditors, reported by the weekly, the number of maternity hospitals in France was 1,369 in 1975. Then to 814 in 1996, to drop to 498 last year, in 2018. Either a division by two in twenty years.
The number of beds in obstetric services has experienced the same trend, since it would have been “Almost halved for thirty years”. As a result, 5.4% of women exceed the thirty-minute threshold to access a midwife or a maternity ward, which “May cause difficulties in monitoring pregnancy”.
A “gradation of care”
However, the birth rate has remained stable since the 1970s, with between 710,000 and 800,000 births per year on average. Restructuring is not new, recalls the JDD. But now the government “Assume to make the” gradation of care “”, writes the author of the article.
This means that routine care stays close to home, while more complex acts (childbirth, operation) take place in a service that may be further away. Last September, the government assumed this position. It is even one of the main pillars of the Ma Santé 2022 project. “When a maternity hospital no longer has an obstetrician every other day, I am not sure that we are doing the population a service by maintaining it artificially”, thus justifies the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn.
“Apart from financial problems, the greatest current tension is that of medical demography, summarizes Frédéric Valletoux, president of the Hospital Federation of France interviewed by the weekly. Where there are closures, it is generally that the issue of security arises to the detriment of proximity. “ The text of the law Ma Santé 2022, which includes an entire section to fight against these medical deserts, will be presented this Wednesday, February 13 in the Council of Ministers.
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