To fight against medical deserts, the Ministry of Health announced a 6% increase in the number of candidates admitted to the first year of medicine competition in 2017.
Marisol Touraine confirms the boost announced last November. The numerus clausus, the number of students admitted to the entrance examination for the second year of medicine, has been reassessed. From June 2017, 478 additional places will be allocated, raising the total number of admissions to 8,124 across France, i.e. an increase of 6%. This is the highest figure since 1978.
Since 2015, the regionalization of the competition has made it possible to allocate places in the areas with the greatest demand. “For deficit regions, this corresponds to an increase in the numerus clausus of 11%,” said the Ministry of Health in a press release. This is the stated objective: to help regions in which medical demographics are particularly weak. The increase in the number of admissions concerns 26 faculties of medicine * spread across the entire metropolitan territory, and overseas.
A larger increase overseas
For the Antilles and Guyana, particularly affected by medical desertification, the increase will be significant: it will amount to 27% between 2015 and 2017. Last year, the numerus clausus had already been noted in certain regions. The places in the second year of medicine at the national level had thus gone from 7497 to 7646. The effects of this measure will however not be observable for about ten years.
The increase concerns the medical faculties of the universities of Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Besançon, Rennes, Corte, Strasbourg, Lille, Amiens, Paris (VI, VII, XI, XII, XIII, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines ), Bordeaux, Poitiers, Montpellier, Toulouse, Marseille, Nice, Angers, Nantes, the Antilles, Guyana, New Caledonia, but also Saint-Denis de la Réunion.
A new status and flying teams
To reduce medical desertification in the short term, Marisol Touraine also proposes to the vote of the National Assembly an amendment to the social security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2017. This provides for the constitution of teams of doctors Liberals replacing the Regional Health Agencies (ARS). “These teams will come to support liberal doctors installed in sub-dense areas,” explained the minister. This is a strong expectation, expressed by the young professionals themselves. “
A circular addressed to the Directors General of the ARS provides for the creation of the status of assistant doctor. It authorizes medical students, who have not yet presented their thesis, to come to the support of doctors installed in areas where the shortage is greatest.
medical desert
