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Video length: 3 min
Medical deserts: hundreds of kilometers for a medical appointment
Faced with months of waiting to obtain a slot, some patients prefer to travel hundreds of kilometers in order to access certain care, notably MRIs or CT scans.
Among all the passengers who pass through Parisian stations every day, some are somewhat special travelers. That day, a patient left La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) at dawn. He took a day off and a train ticket for 200 euros, then traveled from Montparnasse station to Antony (Hauts-de-Seine) to go to a private hospital. Here, he was given a slot in a few days, compared to two months of waiting in Charente-Maritime. He must perform an arthroscopy of the knee.
On average 32 days to obtain an MRI or CT scan in France
This patient is not the only one to come from afar. In the waiting room of Antony hospital, it’s a morning like any other. One in five patients traveled more than 200 kilometers to have an MRI or CT scan. Faced with the influx of patients, particularly those coming from other regions, this imaging center opens time slots throughout the night and on weekends depending on demand. The average time to obtain an MRI or CT scan in France is 32 days, but can take up to several months depending on the region.
