The boat takes on water, the crew and the passengers make great gestures of distress but, on land, the authorities look away. Striking image but which summarizes the situation of school medicine.
With 1,035 physicians working as of 1er June 2016, the workforce has fallen by 20% since 2008, summarizes Aurélie Collas in the newspaper The world. Today there is one doctor for 12,000 students, where the ratio should be 1 to 5,000. These catastrophic figures have, of course, repercussions on medical support for children, especially in difficult areas.
In Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the poorest departments in France, several parents’ organizations and unions have decided to bring to justice “the scandal of the disappearance of school medicine”. They will file a request for liability in the administrative court, reports the daily.
“Our observation is that the rights of students are not respected”, summarizes Didier Broch, member of the FSU union. A situation that is all the more worrying since, in these departments hit by great precariousness, school medicine is very often the only link with the healthcare system.
“Medical visits missed, sight problems or learning disabilities detected late …”, lists the journalist, who visited the town of Lilas. The last school doctor left last year and has not found a successor. He had already extended his term by six years.
“Since his departure, testifies a representative of the parents of pupils, the compulsory medical examination of children at 6 years old is not guaranteed. We have no one to detect learning disabilities, health problems, cases of abuse or to do prevention in schools. »
Nationally, the situation is hardly any better. According to the mediator of National Education, doctors only manage to see “20%, even 10% of students” of six years. Asked by The world, the Ministry of Education says it is “aware of the situation we inherit”. And ensures that the subject is under discussion with the Ministry of Health. But the solution will not be immediate. With a salary of around 2,000 euros per month, the profession does not arouse vocations. 22 of the 80 positions were filled in the 2017 competition and the average age of the school doctor corps is 54.8 years old.
Agnès Buzyn, who makes prevention, especially at school, a strong focus of her health policy, has her work cut out for her!
