Medical deserts: “the health divide is abysmal” according to the UFC-Que Choisir

After updating its interactive cartography allowing you to visualize the number of private doctors accessible per patient and per municipality, UFC-Que Choisir has filed a complaint against the State. Indeed, she believes that “83% of French people live in a medical desert for at least one profession among general practitioners, pediatricians, gynecologists and ophthalmologists who do not charge excess fees“. And “this alarming figure highlights the state of access to care in France.”.

Growing difficulties in accessing care

The association highlighted the difficulties of geographical and financial access to care. According to She“In France, the health divide is abysmal. Two reasons add up and fuel this phenomenon: the poor distribution of self-employed health professionals and the excess fees which continue to increase.“.

On November 21, 2023, around ten members of the UFC-Que Choisir association gathered in front of the Ministry of Health, brandishing signs and surrounding themselves with construction ribbons. They thus wanted to alert people to the difficulty of accessing care. Indeed, according to figures from UFC-Que Choisir, the extent of medical deserts continues to increase. The situation is critical, especially in three specialties (ophthalmology, gynecology and pediatrics).

Medical deserts: a petition to put pressure on public authorities

It is for all these reasons that the UFC-Que Choisir has also set up a national campaign #MaSanteNattendPlus,”to alert and mobilize public opinion in order to put pressure on public authorities so that they finally take binding and effective measures”.

The aim of their actions is to challenge the government on this health divide, because the association judges that the state “brakes the 4 irons to establish regulation at the installation“. And considering a total lack of response from the State, UFC-Que Choisir decided to refer the matter to the Council of State for “inaction“. HAS In this respect, the association asks the population to sign a petition ,”Access to care: I accuse the state”, to support their legal action.

The association therefore hopes that the government will “take effective and binding measures and thus respect the Constitution of 1946 which guarantees health protection to all”.

Medical deserts: the government responds to this legal action

However, the Minister of Health said “irritated”Thursday November 23, in a newspaper interview Release, after this legal action. Compared to the regulatory measures for doctors’ facilities, it remains clear and precise “that we are accused of inaction annoys me. Letting go of this idea that, for politicians, people’s lives would be a setting in which walking around is unbearable. I’m not disconnected.”

Furthermore, the government is not “effectively do not agree with forcing a doctor (…) to settle somewhere. Because we are convinced that the remedy would be worse than the disease”, that doctors would then risk “change job”.