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Additional aid has just been granted to health professionals: 15 euro cents in compensation per liter of petrol for home visits. An announcement that could interest retired doctors, more and more of whom are returning to service in the face of the shortage. Portraits.
For ten days, Doctor Fabrice Fardel has been an active retiree. This retired general practitioner in Sarrians (Vaucluse), has returned to service. “[Des élus locaux] offered to offer me the cabinet, to offer me the equipment, to detach a secretary from their home. I really realized the panic of these mayors”, he says. He thus agreed to replace a general practitioner during her maternity leave. “If he wasn’t there, it would be frankly problematic for a lot of people”says a patient.
One in ten retired GPs work occasionally or regularly in France, often to make up for the lack of doctors. In Hayange (Moselle), the public hospital lends premises to a group of five senior doctors, who take turns with patients. “It seems to fill a void”acknowledges Dr. Bernard Renauld. “These are patients who we often don’t know, who are (…) medically wandering and who have really found us like a lifeline”adds Doctor Gilles Arous. Fabrice Fardel, for his part, ensures that he will continue to replace “so much [qu’il sera] in shape”. Seven million French people, who live in medical deserts, have no attending physician.