To denounce the medical desert in which her commune is located, the mayor of La Gresle, in the Loire department, has just issued an order prohibiting the inhabitants of her commune from dying on weekends and public holidays.
“It is forbidden for residents to die at home on the municipal territory on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays for an indefinite period.”
It is in these terms that Isabelle Dugelet, mayor of the town of La Gresle, in the Loire, wrote a municipal decree on Friday, December 6. If he is ready to smile, he nevertheless has a mission as serious as it is alarming: to denounce the medical desert in which his commune is located.
An obstacle course to find a doctor
If Isabelle Dugelet decided to take such an order at the end of last week, it was following the death of a resident in a retirement home on Sunday 1er December. According to Progress, which tells the story, the mayor took almost 2h30 to find a doctor who could certify the death – an obligatory act for the funeral. “When there is a death at night, I understand that the doctor does not come until the next morning, but in the middle of the day, no. I find that humanly unacceptable for the family,” said Ms. Dugelet.
For the mayor of La Gresle, finding a doctor who agrees to travel has been a journey strewn with pitfalls. As there is no longer a doctor on duty in the sector of the town, she first contacted the SAMU of Roanne, which refused to come and certify the death. She then turned to the Regional Health Agency (ARS), which appointed a doctor. The latter was notified by the gendarmes, who sent him an administrative requisition. But, in the meantime, the SAMU has also dispatched a doctor from the neighboring duty sector.
Result: many services were disturbed on a weekend, in particular the gendarmes, who must also work in reduced numbers on Sundays. “If the problems are more and more crucial to have a treating doctor, or simply to be treated, it will now be necessary to choose when to die, or else choose the public way where the Samu has the obligation to intervene”, has declared Isabelle Dugelet.
A medical shortage that penalizes rural areas
If the situation here took place without there being any victim, the mayor considers that the situation is no longer livable for the inhabitants of La Gresle. “This morning, I was told that the inhabitants of my town and the sector continue to go to Lyon to see a doctor who has been on the replacement for some time in the neighboring town. You realize, we are 75 kilometers from Lyon! And there, not having a replacement, not having an alternative solution, for them, it’s unbearable”, she estimated on RFI.
Today, she wishes, by this decree, “to make react the authorities and the policies which do not want to question the freedom of installation. This situation of medical shortage cannot last any longer, driving an ever-widening gap between the territories and leading all healthcare personnel to exhaustion. We are told that many doctors will leave in 2025, but until then, how do we do it?”, asks Ms. Dugelet.
Currently, it is estimated that one in three cities in France lacks general practitioners. Eight million French people thus live in a medical desert.
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