Doubling the number of nursing homes and upgrading the role of nurses are among the proposals announced on October 13 by the government.
While France is marked by the gradual growth of medical deserts, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health presented their roadmap to remedy this on Friday, October 13. “Access to healthcare is at the heart of the social pact”, declared Edouard Philippe, who came with Agnès Buzyn to inaugurate a nursing home in Châlus (Haute-Vienne), in a region facing a shortage of doctors.
The government says it favors “pragmatism” over shock measures. To ensure access to healthcare throughout France, it relies on nursing homes, telemedicine and cooperation between healthcare professionals.
Doubling the number of nursing homes
In accordance with a promise from candidate Macron, the plan, the result of consultation with professionals and elected officials, plans to double the number of multi-professional health centers over the entire five-year term, for a budget of 400 million euros. There were 910 in March 2017.
Agnès Buzyn has also ruled out “the forced and administrative distribution” of doctors. The latter will therefore continue to settle where they wish, and the numerus clausus (number of students trained, noted by the previous government) will not change.
The plan aims to facilitate local initiatives by drawing on the many experiences, involving caregivers, elected officials and patients, as demanded by the Order of Physicians. Concretely, cooperation between professionals on the one hand, and between liberal medicine and hospitals on the other, will benefit from regulatory simplifications. For example, advanced consultations – such as when a hospital cardiologist exercises one day a week in a nursing home – will be developed. The combination of employment and retirement, already practiced by nearly 17,000 doctors, will be promoted thanks to an exemption from extended contributions in areas under stress.
“Essential role of nurses”
We must recognize “the essential role of nurses”, also insisted the Prime Minister. The Asalee experimental device, which enables private nurses to monitor chronically ill patients, in partnership with general practitioners, will be made permanent.
“New training courses will be offered from the start of the 2018 school year” to allow caregivers to acquire new skills “then recognized by specific remuneration”.
9000 medical deserts
Another axis of the plan, the development of telemedicine will go through the fixing of prices during negotiations between liberal doctors and Health Insurance in the first quarter of 2018. Teleconsultation equipment is also promised to all nursing homes (accommodation establishments for dependent elderly) by 2020.
In addition, more internships will be offered in liberal practices (+500 in general and specialized medicine) to attract young people to this type of exercise, housing or transport assistance will be encouraged and one-stop information points will be installed for professionals.
A little more than 8% of the population lives in one of the 9000 municipalities under-dense in general practitioners, or about 5.3 million inhabitants, recalls the government. If nothing is done, the situation will worsen under the effect of the drop in the number of general practitioners, many retirements and the new aspirations of young doctors, in search of a more balanced life.
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