An increasingly glaring lack of personnel combined with an increasingly large influx makes the daily life of certain health professionals extremely difficult.
A problem that affects almost a third of the French population. In 2022, 30% of French people live in a medical desert: a city, a department or even a region where health services are less and less present and where patients sometimes have to wait several months, and travel tens of kilometers, for a just appointment.
BFMTV’s daily podcast, “Le titre à la une”, took an interest in this scourge. Guest of the program, Bruno Roujoan, senator from Allier, recalls some key figures.
“We have about 6 million French people who no longer have a doctor, one in three French people who live in a territory known as a medical desert and 1.5 to 1.7 million who give up treatment because they cannot access it. quickly,” he said.
The story of a decrepitude
How does a medical desert form? Asked by “Le titre à la une”, Hiba Trraf, pediatrician at the Montlucon hospital, still in the Allier department, presents her last years within the establishment which perfectly illustrates the progressive decrepitude of the hospital. audience. Having resigned, she will leave, with regret, her duties on November 1st.
“At the beginning there are seven pediatricians, little by little there is a move, then another, a retirement, we look at each other wondering what will happen. Even for 15,000 euros a month no one wants to come and risk their mental health, physical, and especially that of a child, there are things that are priceless”, she assures.
Due to this lack of staff, the daily life of this service, which sees nearly 80 children pass through on a daily basis, becomes hell. Occasionally, she can work 80 to 120 hours a week and puts her life on hold.
“You can last a few weeks, a few months, but after a while it’s very tiring. Last winter was an electric shock, I lost six kilos, you wake up at night, it’s difficult psychologically I can no longer endorse the system, to be an accomplice to it”, she regrets.
Logically, his resignation is also a problem since his departure, if it is not a surprise, was not anticipated by his superiors and the hospital center will find itself without pediatricians.
“I’m sorry for the situation, I tried to avoid it, but I couldn’t do more, I’m physically and psychologically tired. I’m angry about what could have been anticipated”, insists she says again.
Solutions on the table
If Senator Bruno Roujoan believes that “much has been done to encourage doctors to settle in under-resourced territories”, this remains quite insufficient. According to the elected official, it is now appropriate “to open up the prescription to other professions established in the territories” including “pharmacists and nurses.”
“You have to be serious, have protocols that will regulate the work between them and the doctor, who takes care of the patients,” he says.
As a second proposal, the senator believes that it is important to relieve health professionals of administrative work, which takes between 15 and 30% of their day. “You need medical assistants, who do the preparatory work but also the administrative work,” he concludes.
Source: BFM TV
